April 28, 2025
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The H Mart at 1720 NJ-70 in Cherry Hill will be renovated this summer to create a food court that will open at the Asian supermarket this fall.
H Mart, the nation's largest Asian supermarket chain, will bring a food court to its Cherry Hill location later this year as part of a renovation to make the store more of a community hub in Camden County.
The Cherry Hill Township Planning Board approved the company's application last week to remodel the H Mart on Route 70 with a food court, bakery and mercantile store. H Mart has operated in Cherry Hill since 2001. Many of the company's newer locations, including the store that opened in Philly's Olney neighborhood in 2020, were built with food courts. H Mart also has markets in Upper Darby and Elkins Park, both of which have small food courts.
"We're planning to have five or six different restaurants coming in," Joanne No, manager at the Cherry Hill store, said Monday.
Korean restaurant Mirim, known for its bulgogi and beef short ribs at the H Mart in Philadelphia, will expand with a second location at the Cherry Hill store. Don Chicken, the Korean fried chicken chain based in North Jersey, also will open its first outpost in the Philly region when it joins the H Mart in Cherry Hill. Details about the other businesses are still being worked out, No said.
The food court will replace the former Beawon - Stacey's Korean BBQ restaurant that once operated out of a ground-level space at the market.
The store is expected to close at the end of June for at least three months while renovations are completed. It plans to reopen in October with the new food court and a redesigned market. All of the store's display and refrigerator units will be replaced as part of the store's overhaul.
"The company decided it's about time that we accommodate the local people here," said No, who has worked at the H Mart in Cherry Hill for 15 years.
H Mart was founded in 1982 by Korean immigrant Il Yeon Kwon, who opened the company's first market in New York City with imported Asian goods, seafood and other ingredients not usually found at U.S.-based supermarket chains. The brand has grown to more than 100 locations in the country, becoming a cultural unifier for Asian immigrants and their children. It inspired the title of Japanese Breakfast singer Michelle Zauner's lauded memoir "Crying in H Mart," which explores her efforts to connect with her Korean heritage after her mother's death.
In H Mart's application to remodel the Cherry Hill store, the company said it hopes the food court will become "a popular destination" in a community that has a growing population of Asian immigrants. U.S. Census data shows Camden County's Asian population rose from 11,504 in 1990 to 32,598 in 2020. Cherry Hill's Asian population stood at around 10,700 residents in 2020, making up about 13% of the population.
"Everybody in the neighborhood is excited for this," No said. "We've been waiting for this renovation for a long time."
