With Modu Mart, the Kim family—(from left) Brian, his wife Diane, his sister Angae Kim, and her husband Jacob Hong—aim to continue serving the customer base they inherited from Hyundai Asian Mart while expanding their offerings to attract a broader clientele. | J. Adrian Wylie
Los Angeles native Brian Kim found early success in Ann Arbor as one of the Bao Boys, whose food truck became an inadvertent beneficiary of the pandemic-related shift toward takeout dining.
A frequent customer of Hyundai Asian Market, a mom-and-pop Korean grocer nestled behind a Sunoco station at Platt and Ellsworth, he learned of the longtime owner’s desire to retire. James Kim (no relation) had installed a kitchen when he moved the business from Ypsilanti in 2006, but plans for it were never fully realized.
Brian made a call to his sister, Angae, back in L.A. “There’s a market out here that’s for sale,” she remembers him suggesting. She also recalls the exact date: January 7, 2025, because that’s when wildfires began ravaging the area. Their father’s home was among the thousands lost.
She and her husband, Jacob Hong, soon moved to Ann Arbor too, joining Brian and his wife Diane to take over the market and make full use of the kitchen. They’ve named it Modu Mart, which means “all together,” signifying both the family partnership and their hopes for broader community appeal.
Angae Kim and Jacob Hong built their culinary careers in French fine dining, then became private chefs. Eventually, they started a prepared meal service catering to busy families in Santa Monica, Brentwood, and Pacific Palisades.
It was doing well until the wildfires. “Many of our clients still have not been able to go back home,” she says. “They’ve had to move on to other things in other places.”
Now the four are going “all hands on deck” to serve their inherited customer base, “just very old-school Korean, people who immigrated here a long time ago,” Angae says. “We literally sell one of everything almost every day. People like what they like, and they want what they want.
“So those were warnings that the previous owner gave us, like, hey, don’t change too much at once. People don’t like activating the change as much as we think.”
While continuing to stock the accustomed varieties of noodles, produce, frozen foods, canned goods, rice, and snacks, they’re adding more shelf signage in English and looking to increase the product mix strategically. “We wanted to kind of revitalize it and open it up to the community and the neighborhood in a more inviting way, and have it be more accessible to all people,” she explains.
Those groceries will also become elements for their fresh-made fare, starting with grab-and-go sandwiches and reheatable meals prepared for sale in the deli section. In time, they’ll add hot dishes too, posting them on Instagram to draw same-day shoppers.
The seasonal rotation will include Korean recipes, but not exclusively. The bao buns and grain-fried chicken sandwiches familiar to their former food truck customers at York Food & Drink may pop up occasionally, but the chefs have eclectic tastes, from such fusion creations as fubuki tacos to classic Italian lasagna—“all kinds of international foods as well, and desserts!” she says.
Modu Mart, 3893 Platt, (734) 929–6519. Mon.–Sat. 10 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. instagram.com/modumart.co