K-pop shop aiming to be the ‘largest in the UK’ announces opening date of new store

The House of PKL opened just over six months ago but already demand for Korean street food, events and merchandise has been so high that the family-run business needs bigger premises. The cafe meets shop is currently located on St. James Terrace but it has been preparing to open the new location on Parliament Street.

The team has announced that the new shop will open from August 26 from 12pm until 6pm with a ‘grand opening event.’ The event will celebrate with bubble tea, korean street food, K-beauty and of course, K-pop.

The shop sells a random of Korean pop (K-pop) merchandise from band and singer trading cards to light sticks for concerts to collector’s items and albums. Downstairs, the cafe gives fans a chance to catch up, trade merchandise and talk over street food items such as Korean loaded fries.

Anastasia Tsappis, from Wollaton is the owner of the cafe. She was inspired to start the business thanks to her daughter’s love of K-pop and the lack of nearby spaces for them to go to meet other fans.

“We wanted a more central location as we have some really big ideas that we can work on in a bigger space. We will be expanding our product line as well as serving the residents of Nottingham our lovely food,” she said.

The menu will be expanding in the new location but it will still have a lot of the old favourites on there for regular customers. Think Korean street food staples such as loaded fries, crispy chicken bites and wings.

The shop on Parliament Street has been empty for some time but was previously a sports equipment shop. The premises needs adjustments to get the two-storey building ready to open in August. Fans have already spotted the signs in the window advertising the new launch.

“We are in the process of transitioning so we haven’t started any work yet just distributed a few things. We are still in the design stages and it's only the fourth week now. It’s a complicated building but hopefully, we can start the work once our design is sorted,” she said.

The bigger space will mean more items and events which will appeal to even more K-fans. There is a huge scene for Korean beauty products which House of PKL is hoping to tap into along with Korean language lessons for those looking to pick up a new skill.

“We were really nervous when we first opened and we are equally nervous now or even more so as it's a huge project. We will be doing Korean beauty products as well so it won’t just be K-pop. We have a massive space upstairs that we are going to use for people to have Korean lessons and learn dances,” Anastasia said.

“We have a huge space as it has two floors so this will be the largest K-pop shop in the country.”

The demand for K-everything has been huge with the shop needing larger premises to cater to the customers. People are willing to travel from all over the country to get the items and the family already have regulars.

While they are still designing the shop, they have encountered one of the difficulties of shop layouts in the city centre especially around listed buildings - the issues with lift access. With disabled family members in her family, this was important to Anastasia who has designed a bespoke personal shopping service for visiting disabled customers which will make the products accessible.

“We've become a real fixture in the lives of our customers. We have people coming in every single day as people travel from afar from Stamford, Manchester, Portsmouth and Birmingham. It’s been a great response which is much better than we could have ever anticipated,” she explained.

“We have people coming in from Nottingham who didn’t know we existed so a new, more prominent location will mean everyone can come here.”