Seoul Sisters Pocha Shifts to Southeast Asian Menu in Henrietta

HENRIETTA, N.Y., January 15, 2026 — Seoul Sisters Pocha, a restaurant on South Winton Road in Henrietta, has overhauled its menu to serve Southeast Asian cuisine, bringing Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian dishes to the Rochester area under new culinary leadership from veteran local restaurateurs Jay and Clarissa Chunwick.

The change marks a significant shift for the restaurant, which opened in March 2025 under the ownership of Chaewon Kim as a Korean dining concept. Within months, the demands of running two restaurants led Kim to seek a new direction for Seoul Sisters while maintaining her focus on Sodam, her Korean restaurant on Jefferson Road, which she has owned for 20 years.

Southeast Asian Cuisine Comes to Henrietta Through a Restaurant Partnership

Kim brought in the Chunwicks after their previous restaurant, Sweet Basil Cafe, a pan-Asian restaurant at 2 E. Main St. in the village of Victor, closed for health reasons in 2025. Clarissa Chunwick had spent several years working for Kim at Sodam before she and Jay opened Sweet Basil in 2020, making the collaboration a natural fit.

Under the new arrangement, Kim continues to own Seoul Sisters but steps back from its day-to-day management to focus on Sodam. The Chunwicks run the kitchen and serve their food at Seoul Sisters without carrying the financial burden of restaurant ownership.

"It was so much work to do for myself, back and forth, back and forth," Kim said. "I cannot focus on the one place because I have to split my focus."

Kim said some dishes from the original Korean menu at Seoul Sisters will transfer to Sodam beginning in February 2026, ensuring loyal customers of those dishes can still find them.

Menu Highlights Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian Dishes

The new Seoul Sisters menu draws from three Southeast Asian culinary traditions, with familiar anchors and lesser-known regional specialties sitting side by side. Standard items include spring rolls, pho and pad thai. Cambodian dishes form a distinctive part of the offering, with a spicy papaya salad, classic fried rice known as bai cha, a coconut curry soup called num banh chok and a mild noodle dish called lort cha.

The Cambodian additions are particularly notable for the Rochester dining scene, where Vietnamese and Thai cuisines have established a consistent presence over many years but Cambodian cooking has remained less common. The menu gives diners access to dishes and preparation styles that reflect a broader sweep of Southeast Asian food culture than most local restaurants attempt.

The Chunwicks Bring Decades of Local Restaurant Experience

Jay and Clarissa Chunwick have worked in the Rochester restaurant industry for years, with Sweet Basil Cafe representing their most recent independent venture before its closure. The Victor restaurant built a following for its pan-Asian menu during its five-year run, and the couple brings that accumulated knowledge of Southeast Asian ingredients and technique directly to the Seoul Sisters kitchen.

Their decision to work within an existing restaurant rather than open a new one allows them to return to serving customers quickly without the extended timeline and capital requirements of a ground-up launch.

Seoul Sisters Pocha is located at 3159 S. Winton Road in Henrietta, in the Plaza at Win-Jeff. The restaurant operates Tuesday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed Sundays and Mondays and offers both dine-in and takeout. For more information, visit seoulsisterspocha.com or call (585) 471-8517. Sodam Korean restaurant is at 900 Jefferson Road; more information is available at sodamkoreanrochester.com.

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