CJ Foodville opens first Olive Pepe Italian bistro near Gwanghwamun Station

CJ Foodville, the restaurant arm of South Korea's CJ Group, opened the first store of a new Italian bistro brand, Olive Pepe, near Gwanghwamun Station in central Seoul on 11 December 2025.

The brand name combines "olive" with "pepe", the Italian word for pepper. The company presented the Gwanghwamun store as a casual Italian setting and built the concept on the experience it gained from running its existing Italian bistro chain, The Place. Olive Pepe was meant as a testing ground for a new dining format.

The opening mattered because Gwanghwamun is a crowded district for bistros and office-worker dining, so a new brand there competed directly with established names. Korean media reported strong early demand, including heavy reservation traffic after the launch.

The store was the first of several. Branches later followed in Yeouido, Pangyo and Gangnam, and the launch showed CJ Foodville's push to develop new in-house brands alongside its established chains. It is a different business from Olive Better, a wellness store concept from CJ Olive Young.