"Woo Lae Oak, cannily reworking its own tradition, has slipped into SoHo with an assurance and a sense of style that already make it seem as though it's been a neighborhood favorite for years." So William Grimes wrote in a glowing New York Times review of this reinvented Korean eatery. Korean food? A neighborhood favorite in SoHo? Not to worry-Grimes hasn't somehow lost his way and ended up on 32nd Street. Woo Lae Oak is setting out to blaze new culinary trails with its deliciously hip Korean fare, and with serious Koreaphiles Deborah Stanton and Eleazar Martinez in charge of the stoves and the barbecue tables, it's changing the way downtown denizens eat Asian.

Stanton, former top toque at Manhattan's Galaxy Global Eatery, was chef/owner of the widely acclaimed Chow-Asian Tropical in South Beach. She earned rave reviews from The Miami Herald and other publications, but her fascination with Korean cooking made her long for a serious education in the subject. She sold the popular eatery and headed to Korea to study. Back in New York, she teamed up with Young Choi, who was ready to launch her brand-new version of the family-run Woo Lae Oak (the original restaurant went up in flames some years ago). The new place would put into play the innovations she had launched in the restaurant's Beverly Hills outpost (there are also branches in Seoul and in Washington, D.C.).

Choi imported Martinez from the L.A. Woo Lae Oak to help put her dreams of Manhattan cool into play. A veteran of the restaurant, Honduran-born Martinez started out as a prep cook. In no time, he was moving up the line; he graduated from the culinary program at UCLA, re-enrolled to learn Korean, and graduated to sous-chef. At Woo Lae Oak in Manhattan, Martinez and Stanton are turning out the sort of food that just might make Korean the city's next culinary Big Thing-authentic enough to please the most traditional kimchee fanatic, but with a definitive twist of downtown New York cool.