Koreatown: Hanging with the Ktown Cowboys and Jameson Irish Whiskey

One day I was having a Jameson Black Barrel Irish Coffee at Beelman’s Pub and a couple of nights later I found myself hanging out with the Ktown Cowboys.

 

Ktown Cowboys, the web series on youtube, was very popular with the Asian American community, particularly since it featured LA’s Koreatown. I watched the episodes remembering all the good times in Ktowns in LA, San Francisco and New York. And now there’s going to be a movie in 2015. My general knowledge of Ktown really only extended to food and drinks. I love Korean food and had my first taste of soju in my early 20s hanging out in Berkeley and SF. The party/ club scene was however very mysterious to me. And maybe that’s why I enjoyed the Ktown Cowboys show. I was fascinated by the culture of rounds- starting off one place for dinner, a bar, singing at a noraebang (karaoke) then back to food. Four rounds, can I do it? I thought so. It’s not unlike something I do anyway.

Our first round started us out at Ahgassi Gopchang. Fans of Kang Hodong Baekjeong will enjoy its nearby sister restaurant Ahgassi Gopchang. Although there’s no cheese corn, Ahgassi Gopchang specializes in intestines which we tried after many rounds of meat, both beef and pork. It’s fairly basic. There are no rice paper wraps here. Your veg is basically green onions and there’s not even kimchi unless it came with a dish of meat. However, the banchan did include soup and steamed egg.

 

The intestines turned out to be pretty good after you let them crisp up. But I rather have more pork jowl. And copious amounts of beer and soju. I asked about the supposed Hite beer shortage but that was poo-poohed. Apparently that was a scheme to drive up sales of Korea beer, be it Hite or OB.

Ahgassi Gopchang

3744 W 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005  — (213) 249-9678

 

Redbreast Irish Whiskey Old Fashioneds at Cafe Bleu

We almost didn’t make it to Cafe Bleu. More bottles of beer and soju had arrived but apparently you can leave bottles you didn’t ask for. Hey, that’s a good strategy. But maybe I shouldn’t be telling this secret…

There was a short debate about going directly to round three but that didn’t seem right so we went over to Cafe Bleu which was well stocked with whiskies and other spirits. We got a bottle of Jameson Black Barrel and a round of Redbreast Old Fashioneds. I was pretty excited to learn Yellow Spot was coming soon (hopefully) to LA in January. I love Green Spot so I can’t wait to try Yellow Spot.

Cafe Bleu

3470 W 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90020  — (213) 383-0180

Recital Karaoke

 

Round Three- noraebang or Korean style karaoke. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been in a room singing (or mumbling) lyrics. I finally witnessed booking in action. Booking is when random girls show up to your table and help themselves to your booze. Oh, I guess that’s not really what it is…

If you watch one of the earlier episodes of Ktown Cowboys, it’s when the club manager brings over female patrons to mix with your male group. Our already mixed group didn’t need the company of these ladies.

 

Sadly we didn’t make it to a fourth round so I considered the fruit plate my dessert. Judging spots on their fruit plate is pretty fun. Maybe I should do a fruit plate crawl? Or if you think you have what it takes to go through at least three rounds in Ktown, let me know!

Recital Karaoke

3500 W 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005  —  (213) 381-6666

 

 

Watch the Ktown Cowboys movie trailer.

© The Minty  2014