BBQ restaurant and brand Kimchi Smoke (Visit Website), has ceased it’s expansion back to Bergenfield.

Announced last year, owner and postmaster Robert Austin Cho was planning on taking his smoked meats and more to a location at Foster Village on Washington Avenue.

While the current store is in Westwood, Cho opened his first location in Bergenfield — which he outgrew within a year — the announcement was billed as a return of sorts.

In a social media post yesterday (View Instagram), he announced it’s cancellation putting the blame on COVID-19, which has kept “things in limbo” from a planned construction that was supposed to begin in March.

He also shared the tenuous nature of the current pandemic, admitting there was a time he was concerned the business might have to close over the last four months.

Currently their are no new plans for a second location, while Westwood is open for pickup and delivery.