Deep into Hongdae’s sprawl of pretty pedestrians, cool clothes
stores and hip cafés is a street slightly away from the noisier sections. On the street is
a discreetly marked entrance to a bar. The entrance leads directly downstairs.
The steps lead the way in to Suzie Q’s.
Inside, the dark wooden interior is
decorated by LPs stuck to the walls, various other musical memorabilia and a
large photograph taken looking out from the main stage of a festival during a
concert one sunny day long ago.
The DJ’s area accounts for an entire
side of the modestly-sized bar. An archive of records fills the whole wall
behind the record player, LPs spanning from corner to corner, ceiling to floor.
The owner, an elderly gent in a beach hat, and his assistant, a younger man with
floppy hair and horn-rimmed thick plastic spectacles, only play vinyl.
They do not decide what vinyl they play.
Customers can request anything they want, by writing it down on a scrap of
paper and handing it over. I asked for Lola by The Kinks. A few minutes
later, a black-and-white record sleeve with "The Kinks" on the front could
be seen being waved around behind the record player. The sound of 1960s London duly clanged over the speakers, following on
from a Fleetwood Mac song.
At the bar, the wife of the owner, a
friendly grandmother type, pours spirits and mixers straight from supermarket
bottles into plastic cups. Beers can be taken directly from the refrigerator,
then over to the bar to be paid for and opened.
When they played Roxanne by The
Police, the drinking games commenced. One team drinks when Sting sings "Roxanne"; the other when he sings "Red light". It’s an old game, but fun in
the right surroundings. Maybe that’s why it fitted in so well here. You could
listen to David Hasselhoff in a place like this and it would sound like a
classic.
A short documentary film about Jo Gyu-Nam and his bar, Suzie Q's can be seen here.
