Highland Park’s first Korean-style corner store opened today. The main attraction is a self-serve ramen bar where you pick your packet, add toppings like a jammy egg or cheese, and it’s ready in minutes. The menu includes snacks and sandos, from a braised oxtail hand pie to a Korean Cobb with gochu-shredded chicken and crispy pork belly, a mayak egg sandwich on milk bread and a Seoul-style breakfast.
Mokja is part café, part convenience store, part retail shop and comes from the minds of Chef Debbie Lee of Yi-Cha and Frank and Michelle La of Be Bright Coffee.
“Mokja is really an extension of what we’ve built at Yi-Cha, just told a different way, so I leaned into the comfort foods and everyday staples that feel like home,” Lee told The LA Local during an exclusive preview of the market held last weekend.
Designed by Kahi Lee — who also did the interiors at Yi-Cha — the space keeps things minimal: exposed brick, dark wood, a dark ceiling and large windows that let in natural light. Guests can post up at one of two 12-seat communal tables or grab a stool at the long bar next to Mokja’s self-service ramen station.
“The ramen bar came right out of that Korean convenience-store feeling, where cooking your own noodles at the counter is just part of the fun,” Lee said. “You pick your packet, add your toppings like a jammy egg or some cheese, and it’s ready in a couple of minutes.”
In South Korea, convenience stores (pyeon-ui-jeom) serve as essential neighborhood social hubs where residents cook quick meals, socialize and grab high-quality coffee.
Mokja adapts this cultural model for Los Angeles, blending the accessibility of a neighborhood corner store with artisanal culinary execution. But Lee said Mokja is more than that. She sees it shaping up into a community space, with pop-ups, K-beauty classes, kids’ art workshops and guest-chef cooking classes planned throughout the year.
“I want a student, a family, a neighbor on their lunch break — you name it — to all feel like Mokja is theirs,” Lee explained.
Here are some other highlights from the space.
Must-try: The Kimchi Tuna Melt tartine
This is a toasty, buttery sesame gochujang sourdough loaded with a cheese medley, smothered in kimchi tuna salad and topped with perilla. Sweet-and-spicy gochujang, sesame oil, mayo and nutty cheese make for a bite that’ll have you going back for more.
Must-try sweets
For dessert, Chef Dara Yu’s so-called “Seoulful snackies” lineup includes a Cha Ice Box Pie with whipped cream, a Rooted Fare black sesame choco pie, a corn and coffee parfait, brown butter jollypong, and almond cookies.
Need a caffeine boost?
Be Bright Coffee’s Frank and Michelle La — 2024 U.S. Barista Champions — create a signature drink menu that leans fully into Korean flavor: a yuja cha lemonade cold brew, misugaru latte, omija sparkler, plus curveballs like a banana matcha latte and sweet corn latte.
“Mokja lets me build a coffee program through the lens of my own culture, and after 16 years in coffee, it’s been really refreshing to finally lean into that side of myself,” Frank La told The LA Local.
The snacks
Chef Lee and her team also stock the grab-and-go case daily with kimchi, seasonal banchan and heartier options like KBBQ ssam plates and steamed mandu. Round it out with a Korean drink — Binggrae banana milk, Bacchus-D, Demisoda and more are all on hand.
The merch
Michelle La curated the retail shop, featuring products from AAPI makers. This includes Korean pantry staples like Seoul Sausage, Rooted Fare, Woon Kitchen and Valerie Confections. It also features tote bags from Korean visual artist ZiBeZi and chef aprons from Helt Studio.
“We want Mokja to feel like it belongs to Highland Park,” Frank La said. “The whole thing is meant to be fun and welcoming — coffee that doesn’t take itself too seriously, food you’d grab any day of the week, and a shelf full of AAPI makers we love.”
Find Mokja at 5715 N. Figueroa St., #102, right beside Highland Park’s public parking lot. Look for the Mokki mascot out front. Open daily 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
