Funk Seoul Brother
BJ Lofback
Chef and owner of Funk Seoul Brother, a Nashville restaurant brand that features creative takes on street food inspired by Korean and Japanese cuisine. The Detroit native interprets and creates Korean and Japanese cuisine in a loving sign of appreciation for the cuisine and flavors he is wildly inspired by and appreciative of.
Riffs Fine Street Food launched in April 2011 at the start of Nashville’s street food presence. The truck featured ‘riffs’ on cuisine from a variety of cultures, resulting in wildly popular dishes. The received accolades and awards, national TV exposure, and quickly grew a dedicated customer base. Lofback also helped establish the Nashville Food Truck Association, acting as the founding president.
The brand shifted to Funk Seoul Brother in late 2015 with a concentrated focus on Korean and Japanese street food, and was quickly named ‘best new food truck’ in Nashville Scene’s 2015 Best of Nashville issue and continued in 2016 as Best Food Truck. Lofback has an eye for national trends and was the first to bring dishes like Korean fried chicken, poke bowls and sushi burritos to Nashville.
The Funk Seoul Brother food truck features a rotating menu of Korean street food favorites: Kimchi ‘crack’ rice, Korean fried chicken, bibimbap, Korean BBQ tacos, and most recently, cup bop.
Funk Seoul Brother opened a restaurant in The Factory at Franklin in January 2017, which serves a variety of poke bowls and Korean style ramen.
Major awards & press for Lofback include: Nashville Scene’s Best of Nashville (2011 Writers’ Choice, Best Food Truck; 2012 Readers’ Choice, Best Food Truck 3rd place and Writers’ Choice Best Pop-up Restaurant; 2013 Readers’ Choice Best Food Truck, 3rd place; 2014 Writers’ Choice, Best Sandwich; 2015 Writers’ Choice, Best New Food Truck; 2016 Writers’ Choice, Best Food Truck and Readers’ Choice Best Food Truck 3rd place); The Daily Meal’s 101 Best Food Trucks in America (2012 #63, 2013 #57, 2014 #96, 2015 #16, 2016 #79); Cooking Channel (Eat Street, November 2012 and Unique Eats, October 2013); Battle of the Food Trucks winner (2011, 2012); Nashville Street Food Awards ‘Best of the Best’ winner (2013, 2015); Nashville Lifestyles (Savor 2012, Savor 2013 Third Place, Battle of the Burger 2013 3rd Place People’s Choice); Our Kids Soup Sunday; 2017 Judge’s Choice Winner; Second Harvest Generous Helpings winner (2016, 2017); Motherclucker Fried Chicken Festival Chattanooga winner 2017.