Note to Self

I need to remember that when Rachel Lynn texts me mid afternoon on a Friday with, "What do you say to a quiet burger at Gecko's?" I should always reply with a loud capitalized, "NO!" Believing RL's words to be pure I went about convincing Saejin that it would be only a burger and a couple of beers. This wouldn't spoil our plans of staying in for the weekend and we did have to eat dinner after all.

Soon after work I realized RL had other plans. She had organized for Heidi and Joel to also enjoy the "silence of a burger." Seven bites into the burger and Jes was on route to join us with Shelly not far behind her. This wasn't to be a quiet night.

As I've written before, Gecko's is in Itaewon which is right next to the U.S. Army base. Itaewon has tonnes of shopping, tasty restaurants and many, many bars. Once you venture off the main street you find two very different hills. The first is known as Hooker Hill and running parallel to this is Homo Hill. (Two army staples.)After we all realized this quiet burger had changed into a night out we choose to head over to the better of the two hills to reunite with our good friend Chan Young who just returned from OZ where he was studying.

Soho is a bar we used to frequent a lot. Their happy hours of two for one gin tonics are hard to beat. We stopped going to this bar awhile back when the bar changed owners and the new guy decorated by spray painting the walls, floors and ceiling. He then went and replaced the intimate couches' with a pool table and coverings that don't match. In short, he turned a once classy bar (as classy as two for one bars can get) into a grunge bar.

Chan Young is now working here so we reluctantly went in. After saying hi to Chan Young we got into our favorite habit of bitching about how the place has been spoiled. But Chan Young wouldn't have any of it. He said some people like it and some don't. Get used to it. He then told us the owner was one of his best friends and ushered him over to our table.

This simple introduction made our quiet night out a distant memory. The owner went out of his way to treat us to tasty shots topped with whipped cream that we simply didn't need. It was a nice way to return to Soho and made seeing Chan Young even more memorable. My liver is already cursing the fact we will be back to see him in Soho soon.

Here are pics:


Chan Young is in pink and the owner has the scarf and bad hair. The other two are the regulars, Shelly and Joel.

Saejin, Heidi and I before we drank the shot.

Joel, evil planner Rachel Lynn and her new found boy.