I am not really a person who likes trendy places, but there was a get-together, so I went not long after it opened. As anyone who knows the place knows, it is hugely popular and the wait is long. You come out of the Express Bus Terminal and have to walk quite a way to get there. I have been around the Express Bus Terminal area quite a bit, but this particular part was a first for me that day. The walk was long and the day was cold, so it was a bit of a struggle.

The front entrance

The atmosphere, interior included, is really wonderful. A few years ago a place called T.Y. Harbor Brewery opened in Tokyo and became hugely popular, and now Korea finally has a place like this too. As I am sure everyone has noticed, gourmet trends have been moving really fast lately.

That day one of our group had arrived an hour early and grabbed a table, so we could enjoy our beer the moment we walked in. A fun get-together takes all kinds of preparation, and I think the most important part is having people who actually take action. On my own I would never even have thought of coming here.

Fried octopus

This was a dish our group had ordered before I arrived, so the actual portion is bigger than this. Fried octopus itself is a very trendy dish in Korea, and there were quite a few of these obviously trendy dishes on the menu. They must have benchmarked the domestic beer bars pretty hard.

Inside

The atmosphere is really cool. What I do not get is why the turnover is so slow. We were lucky to have come early, but the people who arrived at seven were still queuing at eight.

The Ultimate Burger

It is not cheap, but if you think of it as paying for the seat, it is reasonable. The taste was not so much distinctive as pleasantly rounded.

Their own house-brewed beer

I tried all three of their beers, and none of them was at a very high level yet. They have the brewery on the premises, so if they manage it well I think it will gradually get better. Given the state of microbrewery culture in Korea, I think it is still too early to judge the taste right after opening. In two or three years or so the level should settle down. I hope they keep running the place well until then.

Buttermilk fried chicken

Ordering chicken as a third dish was a bit much, but the people gathered that day, myself included, are the type who cannot resist their curiosity, so in the end we ordered it. Not cheap, but it was a decent chicken with a nice buttery flavour. Again, you can tell they put a lot of thought into Korean gourmet trends when picking the menu. The problem, though, is that a trend is a trend, and whether a dish actually goes with beer is a slightly different question. Chimaek (chicken and beer) may be delicious, but the beer you drink with chimaek is Korean sparkling barley tea, not a delicately flavoured IPA. The burger is fine at least, but I would hope they think a little harder about the other dishes. The Daisen jidori karaage I had at the Asahi Beer building in Japan went wonderfully with the local beer they brew on site.

Probably JJ Ale (a Jeju beer)

It seems to be not their own but brought in from Hitachino Nest’s Korean plant. If you expect a tangerine flavour you will be a bit disappointed, but the taste itself was fine. The beer’s character seems a bit plain, and I wonder whether it would have been better if they had explained properly that it is meant to be that way. If all it says is Jeju Ale (and not even that, just JJ Ale), you have no way of knowing what it tastes like before you order.

The slightly high prices are covered by the atmosphere. Once the beer lineup fills out and the food menu gets a tune-up, I would like to visit again. And before that, they need to start taking reservations.

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