When Paju moved from its tiny digs on Queen Anne to a roomier spot in South Lake Union earlier this year, it opened up significantly more seats for people to try Bill Jeong’s creative, modern Korean cooking. Now, the much-acclaimed restaurant, in an ideal spot to greet returning Amazon employees, is about to become even more accessible: Starting January 6, it will operate as the casual Paju Noodle Bar during weekday lunch hours.

Paju earned its spot on our list of the city's 50 best restaurants for its jewel box tributes to Korean flavors, like fried rice, black with squid ink and topped with a confit quail egg yolk. While the noodle bar shares a name and space with the original concept, the only overlapping dish is the much-loved chicken wings. The double-fried wings have run as a special in the evenings since Paju opened in 2019, but will be a staple at lunch, offered in plain, soy garlic, and sweet chili flavors. In fact, they’re a quarter of the lunch menu, which makes the meal far simpler than the multi-course evening version, and far cheaper, too, as dishes top out at $18.

The noodles alluded to in the name come in the form of either a spicy seafood ramen with shrimp, squid, mussels, and yu choy, or Paju’s take on seolleongtang, a rich oxtail broth with brisket and herbs. Bibimbap rounds out the menu and offers vegetarians an option, coming with an assortment of mushrooms and vegetables, plus the choice to add tofu, spicy pork, or ribeye bulgogi.

Seolleongtang sits in the upper echelon of soul-warming, SAD-busting soups and should be a hot seller on those classic grey Seattle days, just another astute element in Jeong’s smart move to take advantage of the expected daytime crowds. And an exciting win for those workers, too, since one of the only things that can make a morning commute better is knowing that it ends at double-fried soy-garlic chicken wings.