Stone Bowl, the Korean and Japanese restaurant that spent 12 years serving sizzling bibimbap and steaming ramen bowls near MadTree Brewing in Oakley, closed its doors on August 16. Owners Young Park and Misook Gwon said the decision came down to family, not finances — they're reuniting their household after four years of living apart because of a job relocation.
Park's wife accepted a job in another state around 2022, according to FOX19, and the family lived apart temporarily while the restaurant kept running. The couple told the station they're now ready to close this chapter, reunite their family, and begin the next one together. Park and Gwon opened Stone Bowl at 3355 Madison Rd. in 2014, taking over the former Great Scott restaurant space and living upstairs with their young family while redesigning the building into a Korean dining spot and sushi bar, according to a 2014 report from Healthy Foodies.
A German Winery Building Turned Korean Kitchen
The restaurant occupied one of Oakley's more architecturally distinctive buildings — a German half-timbered Tudor-style structure that once housed August Zimmer's Zimmer Winery starting in 1948, complete with two cellar wine presses as one of Cincinnati's early wineries, according to a local food history account. Before Stone Bowl, the building had also served as the home of Nick's Chops and Chasers and Great Scott.
Stone Bowl's namesake dish became its calling card: bibimbap served in a stone pot heated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, layering crunchy purple rice with a sunny-side-up egg, mixed vegetables, and a choice of protein, per Cincinnati Magazine's rundown of the region's favorite Korean restaurants. The menu also leaned on large ramen bowls and bento boxes, and the restaurant took part in regional Asianati culinary events, including Asian Cuisine Week in February 2025, where it served multi-component bento boxes with sweet potato noodles, seasoned potatoes, and dumplings over rice, as noted by Cincinnati CityBeat's coverage of the event.
Surviving the Pandemic, Then a Family Decision
Stone Bowl made it through the COVID-19 pandemic by shifting to carry-out only in December 2020, trimming its menu down to karai ramen, stir-fried udon teriyaki, and sushi, according to CityBeat's reporting at the time. Park and Gwon said the Oakley community supported the restaurant throughout, and the couple told FOX19 they'll carry the neighborhood's kindness and friendship with them as they leave, along with what they described as memories and gratitude for their customers.
Hoodline previously recognized Stone Bowl as one of Cincinnati's top ramen destinations, a distinction that traced back to strong Yelp reviews the restaurant earned even before the pandemic reshaped its operations.
Another Long-Running Independent Closes in Oakley
Stone Bowl's exit adds to a run of long-tenured independent restaurant closures in the neighborhood. Farm-to-table eatery Red Feather Kitchen shut down after 11 years in December 2024, and Rooted Juicery left its Oakley storefront in a departure Hoodline covered in July. Both closures, like Stone Bowl's, came as the Madison Road corridor has kept transforming since MadTree Brewing's taproom and headquarters opened next door in 2013 and grew into a commercial anchor for the area.
The competitive landscape for Asian dining nearby has also shifted. South Korean fried chicken chain CM Chicken opened a location at Hyde Park Plaza in March, and Mediterranean fast-casual chain CAVA set up shop just steps from Stone Bowl's former address at 3356 Madison Rd. earlier this year. Those openings arrive as Korean cuisine has become one of the fastest-growing sectors in the U.S. restaurant industry nationally, with bowl-centric fast-casual concepts, Korean fried chicken, and ingredients like gochujang driving expansion, according to trend reporting from Restaurant Business.
For Park and Gwon, though, the calculus was personal rather than competitive. After four years apart, the family is choosing to close Stone Bowl's doors in Oakley and start fresh together, closing out a 12-year run that began with a young family living above a Korean restaurant they built themselves.
