By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Bop Bop Korean BBQ & Rice Bowl opens its brick-and-mortar restaurant today after drawing a following this year with the debut of its food truck.
The restaurant specializing in Korean street food such as potato and mozzarella corn dogs and beef bulgogi opens at 11 a.m. at Indoor Rockford City Market, 116 N. Madison St. It fills the space of Guzel, a Mediterranean-style restaurant that closed in spring.
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Bop Bop debuted as a food truck at Rockford City Market in May. It was also part of Food Truck Tuesdays near Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens and at other spots around town. It garnered a following immediately, said Becca Bartels, director of market engagement for Rockford City Market.
“It’s been really great to see the community embrace them. Their first day there was a line, and there was always a line,” she said. “It’s just been so cool to see the community embrace them so much that they can open a brick-and-mortar after one year at the outdoor market.”
The restaurant is owned and operated by Inengah Prasada, who customers know as Pras, and managed by Lenny Enggelina. Pras previously co-owned Gohan Hibachi food truck and was a chef at Shogun, 293 Executive Parkway, for about two decades.
Bop Bop specializes in quick-service grab-and-go foods such as Korean mozzarella corn dogs, which can be ordered with a hot Cheetos topping and sweet spicy gochujang sauce.
You can also get various rice bowls including galbi, a Korean-style beef short rib served with sweet potato noodles and rice, and the beef bulgogi rice bowl, which features a thinly sliced marinated beef served over the noodles, rice and lettuce.
To drink, there is strawberry lemonade served with chunks of strawberry and a boba pearl strawberry popping at the bottom. There is also passion fruit ice tea with a passion fruit popping and dragonberry punch with strawberry popping
There are also a variety of teas such as matcha and brown sugar milk tea, and you can get hot chocolate or a hot mocha latte.
“They’ve got a really big following thus far, so I’m excited to see what that does for our building, for our other tenants here,” Bartels said. “I think it’s a really great draw to downtown, as well. So we’re excited to see that grow and build upon itself.”
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Bop Bop shares the City Market building with Quixotic Bakery, Crust & Crumbles and Velvet Robot. Velvet Robot, however, will close on Saturday as it prepares to move to a new home in Roscoe.
The Velvet Robot space is available for lease.
About | Bop Bop Korean BBQ & Rice Bowl
Where: 116 N. Madison St., Rockford
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday
On Instagram: @bopbopfoodtruck
On Facebook: facebook.com/bopbopfoodtruck
This article is written by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas