Grad Hospital gets a new Korean bakery

More than two years ago, former social worker Suerim Lee rented a commercial kitchen in South Philly with the dream to one day turn the space into a full-fledged bakery. She catered baked goods for small events and pop-ups around town, and sold custom cakes to build her brand. But it wasn’t until the end of September that she opened Seaforest Bakeshop at the corner of 16th and Bainbridge.

Sitting inside her eponymous sunlit bakery (Suerim means seaforest in Korean) near a display of kimchi-ricotta puff pastry pocket pies and sweet potato cheesecakes, Lee admitted she’s been “pinching myself every day.”

“The bakery was in the works for a really long time,” she said. “I filled it with my family and friends’ art, and everything just made sense.”

The bakery menu features riffs on classic Korean dishes. The case is stocked with freshly baked gochujang scallion buns and doenjang caramel rolls — made with her mother’s fermented chili and soybean pastes. “My mom is a big fermentation nerd,” Lee said. Her mom’s arsenal of pickled and fermented ingredients gives Lee a great foundation to play with, allowing her to deliver customers’ first tastes of items they’ve never had before.

“[The bakery] is truly a labor of love,” Lee said.

There are also bulgogi-style mushroom pocket pies, bear-shaped apple cider doughnuts, and peanut and sesame cookies to try. The menu is all vegetarian — inspired by her mother’s creative takes to accommodate Lee’s pescatarian diet — and will change constantly as she plays with savory and sweet flavors.

“I try to make a balanced, not too sweet — [a] sort of Asian tendency — with desserts,” she said. “It’s funny to say, but as a baker, I don’t have too big of a sweet tooth, so I’m always trying to find ways to make treats balanced.”

Lee uses beans from Kensington’s Càphê Roasters for Seaforest’s drip coffees, Americanos, espresso, cortados, and cappuccinos. Lattes come with housemade lavender and vanilla syrups upon request. And matcha and spiced chais are also available. “Our goal is to make the chais spicier than people expect, pushing the cayenne a bit more than comfortable,” said Lee, who prefers the drink on the fiery side.

The 37-year-old’s love for baking was sparked during college in Virginia, cooking and eating with friends. She studied art but got a “sensible” job in social work, she said. For two years, she worked in community food pantries and emergency relief intake for disaster and housing relief in Philly.

While Lee loved helping the community and the people she worked with, she felt social work didn’t offer an outlet for her creativity. “I have a lot of respect for everyone in that profession, but I wanted to do the same work in a different way,” Lee said. She spent six months between 2018 to 2019 in Korea and Japan studying bread-making and viennoiserie. In 2023, she found a commercial kitchen space to bake in. “It might not have been a linear sort of trajectory, but it was a direct connection to the community.”

The 720-square-foot bakery is filled with details that pay homage to her family. Korean folk tradition paintings by her aunt cover the walls near the four-seat bar, and the curtains hanging on the door of the kitchen feature patchwork from her grandfather’s and her hanboks (traditional Korean clothing). There are also works by Philly artists, including ceramic mugs and plates Lee commissioned from Claire Resnick at Wonky Ware Ceramics and a colorful stained-glass window from Lily Feingold (@beautifulday.glass).

Grad Hospital, with what Lee describes as having a “strange lack of bakeries,” was the perfect place for her new business to thrive.

“It’s been really great to see Philadelphians show up,” she said. “We’re growing really fast, which is very exciting, and I’m having a lot of fun figuring out how to do it better every day.”

Seaforest Bakeshop, 625 S. 16th St., instagram.com/seaforest.philly. Hours: Tuesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.