(Image: CHS)

For more than 30 years, Glo’s brought diner lines to E Olive Way. With the Capitol Hill legend in a much larger new space off Broadway, here is the next restaurant that will make the old E Olive Way diner its home.

Imo Pocha is preparing for a June opening in the space, marking an expansion of Hun “John” Lee’s food and drink holdings in the area. Lee and chef/owner Sotokawa Yu opened Noren Sushi and Lounge at E Pike and Bellevue in 2018 after converting the old Benson’s Grocery into a new restaurant space.

There has also been a lot of work to do in the old Glo’s where CHS is told a new kitchen was part of the lease already in place when the building was part of the summer 2022 real estate transaction that put the property home to Glo’s, The Doctor’s Office, Stumbling Monk and Captain Black’s into the hands of the set of E Olive Way businesses that had grown there.

Imo Pocha now joins the group. Lee tells CHS the name is, basically, “Auntie’s place” with pocha the Korean term for a street vendor who serves up Korean comfort food. Like the original Glo’s, it will be a tight fit, smushing into the just over 800-square-foot space.

Imo Pocha will join a Capitol Hill rich with Korean flavors including Meet Korean BBQ which opened on E Pike in 2020, Korean fried chicken joint Pelicana that opened at Pine and Harvard in 2021, Seoul Tofu and Jjim born from a Broadway pho joint in 2022, and May 2022-born Korean corn dog spot Korn Dog.

Lee said preparations are underway for a hoped-for June opening at 1621 E Olive Way.

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