Nicholas Cho, also known by his online alias Your Korean Dad, (born 1973) is an American

barista A barista (; ; from the Italian/Spanish for "bartender") is a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks. Etymology and inflection The word ''barista'' comes from Italian where it means a male ...

, businessman, and

internet personality An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

Coffee career

In 2002, Cho opened his first coffee shop, Murky Coffee, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

It is one of the earliest cafes to be associated with the

third wave of coffee Third-wave coffee is a movement in coffee marketing emphasizing high quality. Beans are typically sourced from individual farms and are roasted more lightly to bring out their distinctive flavors. Though the term was coined in 1999, the approach o ...

and had an expected 2005 sales of over . They purchased their beans from

Counter Culture Coffee Counter Culture Coffee is a Durham, North Carolina based coffee roasting company founded in 1995. It has regional training locations in Asheville, NC; Atlanta; Boston; Charleston, SC; Chicago; Durham, NC; Emeryville, CA; New York City; Philadelph ...

. A second location opened in

Arlington County, Virginia Arlington County is a County (United States), county in the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the Washington, D.C., District of Co ...

, in 2004. Murky Coffee closed in May 2009. Cho pleaded guilty to

tax-fraud Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

in February 2010 for failing to pay sales tax and failing to file unincorporated franchise taxes for Murky Coffee. In his plea, he agreed to five-year probation, community service, and a

repayment plan A repayment plan is a structured repaying of funds that have been loaned to an individual, business or government over either a standard or extended period of time, typically alongside a payment of interest. Repayment plans are prominent within the ...

Cho is a barista competition judge. He organized the mid-Atlantic region's first barista competition in Washington in February 2006 and chaired the United States Barista Championship. Cho cofounded Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters with Trish Rothgeb in Washington, D.C. In September 2014, they opened a location on Union Street in

Cow Hollow, San Francisco San Francisco, in the US state of California, has both major, well-known neighborhoods and districts as well as smaller, specific subsections and developments. While there is considerable fluidity among the sources, one guidebook identifies five m ...

. They expanded into Gourmet Ghetto,

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

in August 2019 at the old Philz Coffee location. Cho, Rothgeb, and chef

Alice Waters Alice Louise Waters (born April 28, 1944) is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 1971 she opened Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its role in creating the farm-to-table movement and for pioneering Californi ...

have expressed their opposition to the use of the word "

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

" in describing the neighborhood. The North Shattuck Association voted to remove the name from signs and marketing material in September 2019. Cho hosted the ''Portafilter'' coffee podcast.

Your Korean Dad

After quitting

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

, Cho's two teenage daughters encouraged him to post on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. He joined the platform in 2019 and posted his first video in April 2020. The "Your Korean Dad" TikTok account reached 1 million followers in November 2020 and 2 million followers in January 2021. His videos features him pretending to be your dad. A typical video begins with Cho introducing himself with, "I'm your Korean dad." And then it follows Cho as he engages in mundane tasks, such as shopping at

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...

or making coffee. Cho portrayed the character in an

Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the sixth largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the numb ...

ad in 2022. Cho said that his Korean dad persona is different from his father.

Personal life

Cho was born in

Seoul, South Korea Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, in 1973. He immigrated to the United States as a toddler. He has two daughters. Cho was married to his business partner and fellow barista Trish Rothgeb. He announced his divorce from Rothgeb in February 2022.

References

External links

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Internet with Bob Cut Mag
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, Nick Baristas American TikTokers Businesspeople from Washington, D.C. Businesspeople from San Francisco Living people 1973 births American people of South Korean descent