Alcohol Culture in Korea: Pubs, Bars, Lounges, Clubs, and More
The last article was about an alcoholic beverage unique to Korea–soju (소주). But we all know that soju isn’t the only Korean alcohol worth drinking. Korean beer is also something to try out. Korean people are especially known for a unique way of drinking beer by mixing it with soju in a 5:5 amount ratio in a cup. This particular drink is called so-mac (소맥-literally short for soju and macju) and is one of the most loved alcoholic drinks among Korean people. Korean beers such as Hite, Cass, Terra, and Kloud suggest that Koreans are very particular about their beer having to have that powerful sparkling–the tingling in their neck that provides specific freshness and coolness-and adding soju in that makes the drink even more flavorful. People drink somac casually at a pub or restaurant when having a meal or at a pocha (pojangmacha, 포차), a low key, mobile style bar.
In this article, I want to talk more about these places where they serve and sell alcoholic drinks (술) and little snacks (안주) to eat. Today there is an even bigger variety of types of places where they serve different alcohols, foods, music, and performances. Each of them boasts different vibes, some paying homage to and inspired from different eras or themes.
Friday Night After Work Hangout Spots
The most common and easily accessible spot is a casual pub-type restaurant. Drinking somac over Korean pork belly (삼겹살) or small intestines (곱창) is probably most popular among white shirted office workers. Korean barbecue places are especially famous for their round, steel tables with an installed grill in the middle.
Perfectly reflecting the meaning of “a good meal” for Koreans, the round table creates a nice, intimate setting to have a nice conversation over a cup of somac. The fresh and clean flavor of a sip of somac allows people to open up fresh and clean before the people who they are having that drink with, and the time spent drinking one glass after another builds their relationship stronger. As mentioned a few other times in my other articles, having a meal together is more than eating together or sharing food for Korean people. It means much more than that. But drinking an alcoholic drink (not just somac) together suggests that this person is willing to know more about that person on a much deeper level. It means that you want to be more intimate with that person, not just romantically but even as just friends.
More Traditional Spots
One of my favorite type of place is pocha (short for pojangmacha). This kind is probably most widely seen in Korean dramas and movies as well and is my personal favorite because of the sentiment it gives.
Today’s pocha looks like a large orange tent connected to a truck inside of which are tables for people to sit and the owner at the back of the truck serving different types of street food. Depending on the owner’s choice, the foods vary from simple bungeoppang (붕어빵 - a kind of pastry shaped like fish filled with sweetened green bean inside), hotteok (호떡 - a crispy hotcake filled with sweet cinnamon syrup inside), to a more traditional anju (안주) - like chicken feet (dak bal, 닭발), chicken gizzard (dak ttong jip, 닭똥집), soon dae (a type of blood sausage, 순대), odaeng (fishcake, 오뎅), and tteokbokki (spicy rice cake, 떡볶기).
Pocha first appeared in Korea back in the 1950s when the owner sold grilled sparrow and soju on the back of a muslin cotton-covered horse carriage served and cooked as soon as someone made orders. There were not a variety of menus in one pocha as we see today, but the main idea was that it consisted of menus that were rapid to cook and simple to eat. It was most popular during the 1970s with the rise of industrialization and economic modernization of the country, and it boomed again in 1997 when the financial crisis hit hard in South Korea. Pocha acted as a place of consolidation in the times when workers had to live through hard labor and challenges. With its relatively affordable price, it was affordable for these commoners to go and relieve their stress and share their hardships with their friends.
Many pocha are disappearing from the streets of Korea due to efforts to keep the streets clean, but I do miss the times when we could walk inside the tent without monetary pressure greeted by “pocha auntie, ”as the owners were called. Pocha, in the word alone, sometimes calls forth a kind of nostalgia, especially for those who lived through the hardest times of Korean history.
Today’s Hottest Spots
As mentioned in the first paragraph, there are so many different styles of bars and pubs. Some of them are inspired by the old-school Joseon era jumak (주막). Up until the Joseon Dynasty, jumak was a place where they sold foods and beverages and provided hospitality for those passing by the area as it was hard for people to travel due to the challenging geographical characteristics. For scholars traveling to Kyungseong (which is now known as Seoul) to take the Imperial Exam, they needed a place to spend the night on their way. The price of stay was included in what they paid for food and drinks there.
Today’s jumak-inspired pubs are located widely throughout Korea. One of them in Gangnam Station is where I used to frequently go when I lived in Seoul. They serve mak-geoli in a pottery jar. The interior is decorated with dimmed red paper lanterns and the seats are made of wood. Of course, today’s jumak-inspired pubs are a lot more luxurious than the traditional ones that existed in the Joseon Dynasty, but it captures that old-era vibe.
To move forward, I can’t leave out lounge bars, where DJs blast music while people take a table to just chill and talk while others take the small floor to groove to the beat. There are bars that were inspired by different countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Large tropical trees, leaf weaved chairs, and pools decorate the interior. There are sports bar-style bars that were brought in from Western culture. There are clubs where each one plays multiple genres of music–for example hip-hop on one side and pop on the other. There is a club where the inside is completely dark. There is a lounge style club themed from the oldies. The age limit is a bit higher and only plays music from the 1990s and earlier, and the set up of tables and the dance floor are all like how they were back in the ‘90s. Away from all the noise and crowd, there are also some people who prefer to drink and have their private time out by the Han River or Cheonggye River. A can or two of Cass beer will last them a whole night as they talk away their worries, happiness, joy, sadness, or anything a group of friends would share.
Closing
Seoul is known for its night culture. There are already a variety of types to choose from depending on people’s taste, and a lot more are continuing to open up to provide endless options for entertainment and unforgettable nights. As easily seen from history, drinking a good alcoholic beverage reflects more than just what people consume by mouth. It reflects the time lived and the era passed. It is the share of the most unbearable challenges in life. Because of this reason, there is a certain nostalgia to bars with themes derived from jumak or pocha. When people walk into a jumak or pocha today, it is like they are traveling through time to that era and vicariously living it. At the same time, people are writing their own history of Korean pub culture as they share a moment of their life there. Some time in the future, there will come a time where our future generation will appreciate our present–and little changes we make today of our own past–whether it is new types of bar emerging or a one inspired by the older styles.