Where Should We Go Tonight? · Result
Mullae
Hot metal in the air, welding shops by day, and the city’s strangest bars and performance rooms between them. Bring cash.
Designed rarity: about 4% of takers
You live here, you are bored of the obvious, and you would rather be among the art kids than the crowd. Mullae is the least polished district on the site: welding shops still run during the day, you can smell hot metal in the air, and artists and musicians started moving in during the late 2000s because the rent made experimenting affordable. The live rooms, record bars and galleries sit between working workshops, and the bars are guests in a working district.
From eight. Bars are free, live shows ten to twenty thousand won, and the small rooms want cash. Mullae is Line 2 on the Yeongdeungpo side and taxis are easy on Gyeongin-ro. Get lost in the alleys on purpose, keep it quiet when you do, and remember the welders are back at seven.
Your strength
The only district in Seoul where the room you find tonight might not exist next month, and that is the point.
Your blind spot
Nothing is signposted, nothing takes cards, and if you want a club you are on the wrong side of the river.
Key takeaways
- Carry cash. The small rooms want it.
- Keep the alleys quiet; the workshops open at seven.
- Get lost on purpose. The good doors are not on any map.
Rooms to try in Seoul
- Vinyl House, Mullae: Records and a bar between the metal shops on Mullae-dong 3-ga.
- LAD & Hall, Mullae: A basement live room for the nights when the district books a band.
- Mullae Jazz In, Mullae: Live jazz in a basement off Mullae-dong 4-ga, as far from a megaclub as Seoul gets.
Rooms to try around the world
- Kreuzberg, the Hinterhof bars, Berlin: Courtyards, workshops and bars that opened because the rent was right.
- Dundas West, the bar strip, Toronto: Studios and bars sharing a block with people who still work there.
- Koenji, Tokyo: Live houses and record bars in a neighbourhood that was cheap first and interesting second.
Your nearest types
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