After six months of fixing up its new location in the Airport Plaza, Gopchang Story opened its doors in a soft opening Monday afternoon to give Warwick its first taste of Korean food.

In addition to being the city’s first Korean restaurant, it is the chain’s first location in Rhode Island and second in New England, joining more than 100 across the U.S., Canada and South Korea.

Gopchang Story owner Steven Cao said opening night had drawn a larger crowd than he expected, and he was happy with how the first day had gone.

“We’re seeing a lot of happy customers,” Cao said.

The business, founded in 2004 in South Korea, has been rapidly expanding recently. When looking at Rhode Island, Cao said, Warwick had stood out as a potential location due to its central place within the state.

“We wanted somewhere in the middle of Rhode Island, where people from the north – Lincoln, Pawtucket – and the south, Newport – can meet in the middle,” Cao said. “We’re also not far from Massachusetts and Connecticut here.”

The chain’s other New England location is on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.

At the Warwick restaurant, significant interior work has been done in the six months  since Gopchang Story’s sign first adorned the plaza. Cao said that most of the interior work was done by a Korean company that had completely renovated the interior and had been designing its replacement for even longer.

Cao said a primary reason for the increasing popularity of Korean food has been the rise in popularity of Korean pop music and Korean TV dramas; as such, a large flatscreen TV in the dining room played K-pop hit videos as background music. At each table is a stove, as some food in Korean barbecue is grilled at the customer’s table.

Gopchang Story’s main specialty is in its name. Gopchang is a Korean dish typically made out of pig or cow intestines and generally found in soups, stews and barbecues. In addition to that titular dish, Gopchang Story’s menu includes other staples of Korean food, including bulgogi, galbi and pork belly. Soju, an alcoholic drink that Cao said was a “perfect match” for the variety of meats served, is also planned, with Cao saying that a hearing to renew the business’ liquor license will be held next week.

Bringing authentic, high-quality Korean food to local communities like Warwick, Cao said, was important so locals could be introduced to the cuisine without having to travel to a large city.

“We’ve got original, authentic food,” Cao said. “A lot of people, they’ve tried the Korean food in Los Angeles, New York – I hope they know now they can try the Korean food here, not too far away.”