Doraville distillery and restaurant incubator Minhwa Spirits will relocate to the former Aziza space at Westside Provisions District early next year. Owned by Tal Baum and Oliva Restaurant Group, Aziza closed in 2024 after five years at the Howell Mill Road complex. The space has remained empty ever since.
The relocation of Minhwa Spirits from Doraville to Atlanta will see the return of chef Jess Kim to the soju and gin distillery’s kitchen. Chef Lino Yi will also revive his popular Korean street food pop-up, TKO (The Korean One), at the Westside Provisions District location.
Postern Coffee, currently housed inside Minhwa Spirits, will take over the entire Doraville space and assume care of resident neighborhood cat Hoshi.
Minhwa Spirits owners Ming Han Chung and James Kim said they will announce a date soon for winding down service in Doraville. For now, it’s business as usual for both Minhwa Spirits and Postern Coffee at the current space.
Why relocate?
Chung and James Kim opened Minhwa Spirits in 2024. Part distillery, part restaurant, and part pop-up chef incubator, the business partners and friends said they’ve simply outgrown the Doraville space. Chung and James Kim have been searching for a larger location for about a year.
“Everyone’s been extremely supportive in [Doraville]. We’ve grown bigger than we thought we would in the two years’ time we’ve been here,” Chung told Rough Draft about the decision to relocate.
Minhwa has maxed out what an alcohol-only business can do, making dining a natural progression. The new location will offer more seating in the dining room, as well as space for Yi to revive TKO inside the former Falafel Nation location next door. For Yi, bringing TKO back wasn’t originally in the cards after he closed his food stall at Southern Feedstore in East Atlanta Village two years ago.
“Second chances are pretty rare, so I feel like this is a third chance,” said Yi, who joined Minhwa Spirits as a chef in 2025. “Ironically enough, [Ming and James] fought harder for [the revitalization of TKO] than I did.”
Expect late-night hours at TKO and a menu featuring popular dishes like Yi’s Wagyu smash burger and KFC (Korean fried chicken) sandwich, along with grilled Korean taquitos.
Over at Minhwa Spirits, Jess Kim will expand the menu further, serving small plates and shareable dishes like sweet potato dumplings in brown butter sauce. Chung and James Kim will continue to host pop-ups and chef collaborations at the new location.
Look for an expanded bar program at the Westside Provisions District location, with cocktails leaning into Asian and Korean flavors and ingredients. The new space will also let people get a behind-the-scenes look at the mixing and blending process for the distillery’s sojus and gin, and gives Minhwa Spirits more room to ramp up the wholesale business.
Music will be an integral part of the atmosphere at Westside Provisions District, including having a DJ at night.
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Not abandoning Doraville
Chung stressed that moving to Howell Mill Road won’t mean completely leaving Doraville. Production for the distillery already takes place at a separate facility in Doraville — about three miles from the Van Fleet Circle tasting room — and that won’t change.
“We will still have a presence in Doraville,” he said. “I’m happy that Postern will be taking this space, because it means something to me.”
Postern Coffee will become the anchor retail tenant at the plaza, which includes the Lumen apartment complex, the city’s public library, and the Doraville Art Center.
Minhwa Spirits’ Yong soju won Best in Class in the soju category at the World Spirits Competition in San Francisco last year. Yong is the first American soju – and the first soju outside of Korea – to win the category. In 2025, Rough Draft honored Minhwa Spirits with its Community Spirit Award, recognizing Chung and James Kim for their commitment to lifting up metro Atlanta chefs and food producers.
Minhwa Spirits will join several restaurants at Westside Provisions District, including Marcel, Little Sparrow, and Bar Blanc from Ford Fry, Barrel Proof, Ormsby’s, Forza Storico, Flower Child, Shake Shack, E+Rose Wellness cafe, and Paya Thai Kitchen.
