Baja Fresh's new "upscale" prototypeBring it on, we say. Whatever you think about Kogi BBQ's publicists or self-promotion, it hardly seems fair that Baja Fresh is trying to jump on their bandwagon by testing the idea of "Baja Kogi" Korean style tacos at a new Irvine Baja Fresh prototype. Kogi says to Twitter them with your opinion of this shameless copycatism.
UPDATE: Here's Baja Fresh's response:
Here are our official Baja Fresh comments, if helpful:
Baja Fresh wants to clarify that our Korean BBQ style “Kogi” chicken and beef tacos and burritos, concept testing right now in one Irvine store, was by no means intended to seem “stolen” from the famous LA-area Kogi taco truck.
Rather, we were under the impression that “Kogi” was the generic word for Korean BBQ style. We have since learned “Gogi” is the general word and will be moving to change our naming to Gogi, for the Irvine store, and for any future roll outs of these products.
We admire greatly the success and popularity of the food items from the Kogi taco truck, and Korean BBQ style food overall.
As always, when our customers are interested in and demand a food offering, we often do what we can to get that food into our stores.
We are really excited about all the buzz and interest in our Korean BBQ style Tacos and Burritos, and hopeful that we can extend beyond Irvine, giving fans more choices, including, always, the original Kogi taco truck.
5 comments:
Isn't this the same as everyone jumping on the 'California Pizza' thing back in the 80's? I don't know if it's really that horrible......maybe because it's Baja Fresh doing it.....?
Maybe I'm wrong though....just a thought.
Baja Fresh is now saying they thought "Kogi" was a generic Korean term and they will likely be changing it too "Gogi". They're also singing the praises for the real Kogi BBQ. Good for them for doing the right thing. Bad for whoever gave the go-ahead in the first place.
Kogi or Gogi or however you want to spell it IS a generic term for meat. Being Korean, when I say let's eat "gogi," along with all all the other Koreans, I mean "let's eat meat" and not the truck.
I guess it's kind of like "BBQ."
Great blog by the way!
we live in a "whoever can market it best wins" society, so i don't see why anyone is surprised. it sucks though.
Here are our official Baja Fresh comments, if helpful:
Baja Fresh wants to clarify that our Korean BBQ style “Kogi” chicken and beef tacos and burritos, concept testing right now in one Irvine store, was by no means intended to seem “stolen” from the famous LA-area Kogi taco truck.
Rather, we were under the impression that “Kogi” was the generic word for Korean BBQ style. We have since learned “Gogi” is the general word and will be moving to change our naming to Gogi, for the Irvine store, and for any future roll outs of these products.
We admire greatly the success and popularity of the food items from the Kogi taco truck, and Korean BBQ style food overall.
As always, when our customers are interested in and demand a food offering, we often do what we can to get that food into our stores.
We are really excited about all the buzz and interest in our Korean BBQ style Tacos and Burritos, and hopeful that we can extend beyond Irvine, giving fans more choices, including, always, the original Kogi taco truck.
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