KFC Apgujeong Rodeo store in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, at 3 p.m. on Feb. 13. The store, which features the familiar “KFC Grandpa” model with snow-white hair and a white suit, has the words “CORKAGE FREE” written on the door.
Corkage is a term frequently used in the restaurant industry to refer to the practice of charging customers separately for glasses when they bring their own alcohol. When a restaurant offers “free” corkage, it means that customers are not required to pay extra when they bring their own alcohol into the establishment.
In announcing the opening of the Apgujeong Rodeo store on his social network accounts, KFC Korea’s representative Shin Ho-sang described it as “KFC’s first Kentucky Burger Pub” and “the world’s first corkage-free burger restaurant.”
At these locations, customers can bring their own alcohol to go and pair it with your burger or chicken. Traditional chicken and burger franchises are often perceived as quick, grab-and-go restaurants. However, selling alcohol would keep customers in the store longer. KFC has dimmed the lighting in these stores to give them a “pub-like” feel.
It doesn’t matter what kind of alcohol you bring with you. When going to the store with a bottle of sake and a beer, the staff actually provided a cup. No special glasses were provided, just a plastic, multi-use cup for soda.
After ordering a burger at the kiosk for an appetizer, five minutes were spent until the menu came out. It was possible to eat the menu with a soju on a plastic cup. Most customers bring wine, but some bring in whiskey and rice wine.
Corkage-free customers usually visit the store after 7 p.m. “We get about 10 teams a day,” said Park Seung-jin, manager of KFC Apgujeong Rodeo. “They often come as a family, with the adults having a few drinks while the kids eat burgers and chicken.”
There are alcoholic beverages also sold in the store. There were four different alcoholic beverages on the menu, which, like the burgers, had to be ordered through a kiosk and brought to the counter.
There were canned grapefruit and lemon flavored highballs, and Guinness draught beer was available in two varieties. One was a regular Guinness draught beer for $6.73 (9,000 won) and the other was a “micro-draft” Guinness beer for $8.98 (12,000 won).
The micro-draft machine uses a ‘double cocking’ process to brew the beer in two stages, resulting in a fine-grained and smooth foam. A regular draught Guinness brewed in a draft machine will fill a glass in less than a minute. But it took more than two minutes to brew in the microdraft machine.
