For Mother’s Day four years ago, Korey Jordan forewent the flowers and gifted his wife a collection of rose-shaped dumplings. But Jordan, who admittedly overcooks when he’s in the kitchen, wound up with way too many.
“My mother always said that I don’t know how to cook for two,” Jordan said. He decided to sell the surplus from coolers out of the back of his car, and a pop-up was born.
Jordan, who grew up in Lawrenceville and has worked in the kitchens of now-shuttered metro Atlanta restaurants including the Pinewood, 4th and Swift and Pig and the Pearl, held his first pop-up event as Gweilo Dumplings (instagram.com/gweilodumplings) at Sceptre Brewing in Oakhurst in September 2020 and hasn’t looked back.
Credit: Courtesy of Gweilo Dumplings
Credit: Courtesy of Gweilo Dumplings
Gweilo — a Cantonese slang word for “white person” — has gained a following for its menu of both traditional dumplings like pork and cabbage and chicken with shiitake mushrooms, alongside fusion fare including a pizza roll with sausage, ham, pepperoni and cheese. The hashbrowns casserole dumpling, filled with potatoes, onion, bell pepper, sour cream and “alarming amounts of cheese” are a nod to the pierogis of his Polish heritage.
Jordan has also enjoyed experimenting with other types of food. Lately, he’s served up a variety of smash burgers, hot dogs with toppings like elote and chili, fried rice with a choice of vegetable or protein, and pizzas like the Bloody Moroccan with bloody mary vodka sauce, cheese, olives, lentils, chickpeas and veggies.
Credit: Courtesy of Gweilo Dumplings
Credit: Courtesy of Gweilo Dumplings
“I try to keep it fresh and do different things,” Jordan said. “I’m more than dumplings!” he said jokingly. He takes inspiration for new flavors by eating out and experimenting with new ingredients he finds at local Asian grocery stores, as well as social media (one of his recent creations, a smash dumpling, was inspired by a viral TikTok video).
But, as much as he’s worked on developing other dishes, dumplings are still the star of the pop-up. Jordan estimates that he makes 5,000 a week and can fold at least 500 an hour (it used to be 700, but the carpal tunnel syndrome caused by excessive dumpling making has slowed him down).
He steams them before pop-ups and sears them on-site to ensure a slight crunch. Though he used to make the wrappers from scratch, he’s started sourcing them from a company in Stone Mountain. “I burned out way too many KitchenAid motors,” he said.
Credit: Courtesy of Gweilo Dumplings
Credit: Courtesy of Gweilo Dumplings
Gweilo typically pops up multiple times a month, and menus are rarely the same from pop-up to pop-up. The menu turnover is a holdover from his time as chef de cuisine at Oak Brewpub in Oakhurst, where he’d change the menu almost daily.
“My mind goes crazy if I do the same thing over and over,” he said. “Some call it ADHD. I just call it compulsion.”
Gweilo has been successful enough that Jordan has been able to turn it into his full-time gig. He said he’ll likely maintain his pop-up status, though he’s considered opening a stall in a food hall or a food truck.
“Before, it was just something I did because I was bored and stuck inside because of the pandemic, but it’s really turned into something,” he said.
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