Grove City, Ohio doesn’t look like ground zero for anything. It’s a Columbus suburb of roughly 42,000 people, per U.S. Census Bureau estimates — the kind of place known for its Strawberry Festival and a Historic Town Center lined with antique shops. So when a line formed outside 4009 Broadway on the morning of May 6, 2026, it caught a few longtime residents off guard — not because a restaurant was opening, but because of what was on the menu.
The sign read DHC Chicken, and Grove City’s own economic development office couldn’t resist announcing it like a hometown team making the playoffs. “DHC Chicken is now OPEN!” the city’s development office posted to Instagram, as reported by Jordan Abbruzzese for 614NOW (May 7, 2026). “Stop in for your choice of Korean Fried Chicken, signature items and more.”
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the chicken might. DHC is a rebrand of CM Chicken — itself better known by its original name, Choong Man Chicken, founded in South Korea in 2009, according to 614NOW. The chain built its reputation on a double technique it calls “tikkudak,” grilling the chicken before frying it, and it started opening U.S. locations in 2017. Eight years later, per 614NOW’s reporting, it sits at just under 50 U.S. stores — and six more are already in the pipeline for greater Columbus alone.
What you’d actually order at the Grove City counter reads less like a fast-food menu and more like a Seoul food court: chibap (fried chicken folded into rice), a corn dog stuffed with potato and mozzarella, fried gizzard, curry, seaweed rice balls, and a fried-tofu salad for anyone trying to balance things out. The shop is open every day except Monday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., per 614NOW.
Zoom out from Grove City and the pattern gets more interesting. Bonchon — the much bigger, much older name in U.S. Korean fried chicken — already runs more than 147 locations nationwide, according to Mashed’s Jay Bual (Jan. 15, 2026), and the chain has named its next four expansion targets for 2026: Kansas City, San Antonio, Chicago, and Omaha. A separate franchise partner is also committed to opening six Bonchon locations in Puerto Rico this year, Mashed reported. CultureMap San Antonio’s Brandon Watson (Dec. 3, 2025) fills in the longer arc: Bonchon, founded in Busan, has grown to roughly 500 locations worldwide, more than 150 of them in the U.S., and the company has said outright that it intends to double its U.S. footprint over the next five years.
None of those four cities — or Grove City, for that matter — are Koreatown. They’re not L.A., not Annandale, not the stretches of Flushing where Korean fried chicken has been a known quantity for two decades. They’re the kind of mid-size and small American cities a chain only enters once it’s confident the food doesn’t need an enclave to sell. That’s the real story sitting inside a ribbon-cutting in a 42,000-person Ohio suburb: Korean fried chicken isn’t expanding toward existing Korean-American communities anymore. It’s expanding toward wherever the next franchise map says there’s room — strawberry festival towns included.
Sources: Jordan Abbruzzese, “International Korean fried chicken chain opens Central Ohio location,” 614NOW (May 7, 2026); Jay Bual, “11 Fried Chicken Chains Expanding Their Footprint In 2026,” Mashed (Jan. 15, 2026); Brandon Watson, “Beloved Korean fried chicken chain Bonchon eyes San Antonio debut,” CultureMap San Antonio (Dec. 3, 2025).
