Ji Hye Kim Built Two Restaurants and a Mini-Mart. She's Not Done.
From Miss Kim to Little Kim to an Asian grocery counter, the James Beard-nominated chef is quietly building a food empire.
Ji Hye Kim does not do one thing at a time. The chef behind Miss Kim, the Korean-inspired restaurant on North Fifth Avenue, has spent the past several years expanding in Ann Arbor with a series of moves that, taken together, look less like a restaurant business and more like a small food conglomerate.
There is Miss Kim itself, the original, which has been part of Ann Arbor's food scene since 2016. There is Little Kim, the smaller, more casual sibling that opened nearby. And now there is the mini-mart concept, a counter offering prepared foods, pantry staples, and Asian grocery items. Nobody else in Ann Arbor has tried to fill that gap quite this way.
Kim earned a James Beard Best Chef: Great Lakes semifinalist nomination, an honor that placed her cooking in a national conversation. But the nomination, like the restaurants, is just one piece of a larger project.
The Miss Kim Philosophy
Miss Kim was never a traditional Korean restaurant. Kim's approach has always been to filter Korean flavors through the lens of Michigan agriculture, using local farms and seasonal ingredients in ways that honor both traditions without being dogmatic about either one.
The result is food that feels both familiar and surprising. A bibimbap made with Michigan grains and whatever the farms are growing that week. A kimchi that uses local produce. The menu changes constantly, which makes it hard to develop favorites but rewards repeat visits with something new every time.
Scaling Without Losing the Thread
What makes Kim's expansion interesting is that each new venture maintains the same philosophical core while serving a different purpose. Miss Kim is the sit-down restaurant. Little Kim is the quick, casual option. The mini-mart is the take-home pantry.
None of these feel like franchise moves. They feel like a chef who sees food as a complete ecosystem and is building each piece of it, from cooking to provisioning, one project at a time.
Miss Kim is at 415 N. Fifth Ave, Ann Arbor. Little Kim is at 407 N. Fifth Ave. The mini-mart concept is in development.