A Stella Artois dining night. The 600-year-old Belgian brewer built a community around its beer that now counts some 200 members. This time it invited 60 gastronomy experts and food influencers from Nanro — “an effort to broaden the range of dining experiences.”
Korea’s dining tastemakers gathered in one room. Michelin-starred chefs, food influencers and restaurant-industry veterans came together to share taste and style at a Stella Artois dining event held on July 26 at Mongtan, the Yongsan-gu beef spot renowned for punishing wait times.
It was the first time Mongtan had been booked out entirely, and the guest list and menu ran even hotter than the room. Three groups joined forces for the evening: members of the Stella Dining Club, of Nanro, and food influencers. In all, some 60 figures leading Korea’s food culture were present — including influencers “Mattagoras” Ahn Yun-se and “Bitter Fan” Han Chung-hee and Michelin-starred chefs Joseph Lidgerwood, Kang Min-chul and Kim Hee-eun.
The host was Belgium’s flagship premium beer brand, Stella Artois. The anchor was its private gastronomy community, the Stella Dining Club — an online-and-offline community built around food and cooking. It began recruiting its first cohort in 2022 on the premise of a “hosting” culture that celebrates inviting the people you care about, and now operates with about 200 members across four cohorts.
The club regularly stages inventive dining experiences at hard-to-book restaurants with well-known influencers, along with brand-invited events. Counting the ad hoc dinners members host for one another, it has produced more than 100 exchanges to date. When members gather at a favored restaurant, Stella supports the meet-up on set terms — and, of course, keeps the beer flowing. Real-time food chatter runs through the club’s own KakaoTalk open chat.
The other pillar of the evening was Nanro — a society of food-and-beverage “gastronomy leaders.” It was founded in February 2022 by Chef Choi Jung-yoon of Sempio’s Woorimat Research Center (Chair of Nanro) together with close chef friends. In under two years it has grown into a broad society of some 300 experts across restaurants, food, distribution and marketing, focused on the question of “how best to make and enjoy hansik.”
Nanro’s membership includes Cho Jun-mo, chief of the host venue Mongtan; Park Soo-kyung of Geumdwaeji Sikdang (Golden Pig BBQ); and Han Chung-hee, who runs 11 dining brands including Geumtoil Champagne Bar. Also on board are Chef Park Jung-hyun and Park Jung-eun of Manhattan’s two-Michelin-starred Atomix; Chef Cho Hee-sook, hailed as a hansik master, of Hansik Gonggan; and Chef Ok Dong-sik, whose namesake restaurant was singled out by The New York Times among its best dishes. Business leaders such as Kim Sook-jin of CJ CheilJedang and Lee Jun-beom of GFFG — the group behind Knotted — are also members.
Nanro takes its name from the Joseon-era nallohoe — gatherings around a warming brazier to eat meat. Eighteenth-century scholars such as Park Ji-won and Jeong Yak-yong were said to enjoy them. Its leisurely-sounding name belies the reality: because it collects the industry’s top players, Nanro’s meetings often become intense conversations about its shared problems. Now several hundred members strong, it does not hold routine gatherings — but members meet in smaller groups to talk through restaurant operations and brand marketing.
Two dining communities that started at about the same time and grew quickly came together for an exchange dinner under the theme, “The moment taste becomes value and pleasure.” Guests arrived in the evening’s “modern boy and modern girl” dress code, looking more like ballroom-goers than diners at a barbecue joint.
The evening opened with welcome remarks from Choi Sung-yoon, brand manager for Stella Artois in Korea. “Timing the meeting with Nanro to the launch of the Stella Dining Club’s new cohort was a chance to broaden the variety of gastronomic experiences on offer,” she said. “Because Stella has focused on premium barbecue restaurants with our 500 ml bottle format, meeting Nanro — who lead Korea’s barbecue culture — is especially meaningful, and we are looking forward to what we can build together as a gastronomic bridge.”
Chef Choi Jung-yoon responded in kind: “Stella is the only beer brand in the world that operates a dining community directly, which speaks to how seriously it takes gastronomy. With its clean crispness and gentle bitterness, Stella pairs with almost anything — I would love people to enjoy the beer alongside Korean grilled dishes, which the world is embracing, and share the experience together.”
The eye-catching centerpiece was jeollipgol, the earliest ancestor of Korean hot pot. The name comes from flipping the beonged-shaped soldier’s cap of the Joseon era — the jeollip — upside down and cooking meat and vegetables in it. This night, the grill area was set with raw fish including minaeo (croaker) and seafood, and the well in the center held chilled mulhoe broth. Sampling raw fish specially prepared at Mongtan, a place synonymous with beef ribs, made for an unusual detour — and, in the summer heat and formal dress, an attentive one.
Then came Mongtan’s signature wodaegalbi and ox tongue. The straw-smoked rib meat carried the marinade beautifully; the tongue, cut thicker than the usual thin slices, was pushed toward maximum chew. Alongside every course, Stella Artois — with its cool-and-bitter finish — kept the pleasure of both the food and the company running.
Stella Artois is a premium beer with over 600 years of Belgian brewing heritage, dating to 1366 and known for uncompromising quality and craftsmanship. The night featured its dedicated chalice — a goblet-shaped glass designed to preserve the beer’s delicate flavors, hold a firm foam and keep the chill for longer.
· Original (Korean): mk.co.kr
