Three Big Stars: North Korea’s First Fast Food Restaurant

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

It may not have a recognizable or familiar fast food name like McDonald’s, KFC, or Pizza, but Three Big Stars has one up on these fast food kings: it is the first fast food restaurant to open in that Stalinist Cold War leftover, North Korea.

According to a news release in one of the English-language newspapers in Korea, Singaporean entrepreneur Patrick Soh recently opened the first fast food restaurant in North Korea and is already planning to open another one soon.

This past May, the outlet called Samtaesong (Three Big Stars) opened its first outlet in Pyongyang after Soh got the first license awarded to a foreign fast food outlet.

According to this article in the Korea Times, Soh “holds the franchise in several Asian countries under the title of Waffletown, a relatively obscure brand compared to the likes of McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut.”

Well, it’s not going to be obscure that much longer, and according to Soh in the article, “there is a potential to develop this business over there.” As such, he believes that there is more potential for fast food in the isolated Stalinist state.

Three Stars offers a marginal selection of fast food with one noticeable difference when it comes to hamburgers, which are the biggest seller in the eatery: they are “called minced beef and bread in North Korea to mask their American association” the article said. Additionally, the outlet also sells fries, crispy Belgian waffles, fried chicken and hotdogs.

It is not only the locals who are lining up outside for a taste of those yummy minced beef and bread creations, “even the foreigners like the food” Soh said in an interview at one of his Waffletown eateries in Singapore.

Soh first visited Pyongyang a year ago and spent a few days in the capital city to see whether or not the Stalinist nation was ready for fast food.

In the meantime, Soh is exploring the feasibility of opening a second shop in Pyongyang and “if all goes smoothly, it should be up and running in early 2010, said Soh, who is not deterred by problems like power outages and the unavailability of some items in Pyongyang.”

Whereas pretty much everything else has failed to get this Stalinist nation to quit being such a bully and be nice to the rest of the world, who knows, maybe when Pyongyang’s diners have had their fast taste of those waffles, fries, and hot dogs they will be clamoring for more and soften up a bit. I’ve got a gut feeling about this.

Maybe that’s what it will take-burgers and fries and the sweet taste of capitalism to do the trick.