The Deadhorse Hill Team Is Opening an American-Korean Restaurant in Worcester

A little over a year after opening Deadhorse Hill in Worcester, owners Jared Forman, Sean Woods, and Albert LaValley announced today that they’ll open a second restaurant this fall, also in Worcester. The restaurant will be called Simjang (stylized with a lowercase “s”), the Korean word for “heart,” and the team describes the restaurant as American-Korean. It’ll be located at 72 Shrewsbury St., which is in the same building as acclaimed pizzeria Volturno. It’s the former space of the recently closed Sweet Kitchen & Bar, per Mass Foodies, and it’ll feature artwork by Arlin Graff, who painted a mural by the Deadhorse space.

Simjang will meld local, seasonal ingredients with “traditional Korean elements,” per a release, and the menu will include “quickly prepared” and “affordable” dishes as well as larger shared plates. “We want Simjang to be a place you can have fun, get messy, learn something new, and indulge,” chef Forman said via the release. He’s an alum of New York restaurants such as Gramercy Tavern and Per Se, as well as Watertown’s Strip-T’s in the Tim Maslow era, where he met Woods, who also worked at Ribelle and Craigie on Main.

So how’d they end up out in Worcester? Forman recently spoke with Eater about it, praising the city’s vibe. “It was partly financial and partly about the feel of the city,” he said. “It just feels right. It feels comfortable, like we can exist out here. And there are plenty of people who want good food.”

Stay tuned for more details on the forthcoming Simjang.

• Deadhorse Hill Coverage on Eater [EBOS]
• Owners of Deadhorse Hill to Open Korean Restaurant on Shrewsbury Street, Called Simjang [Mass Foodies]