one on one

ONE on

with Joyce Moon / manager, Pocha STL and Seoul Garden

WrITTEn bY rACHEL HuFFMAn

PHOTOGrAPHY bY JOrdAn bAuEr

It’s been more than a decade since Joyce Moon’s family took over Seoul Garden in St. Ann, Missouri. At the time, it was the only restaurant offering all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue in the St. Louis area. Moon, who was in high school, remembers it getting really busy really quickly. “There was no investment money, no funding from the outside; it was just our family and almost a hole in the wall,” she says. “But the place was packed every weekend. We were just trying to keep up, learning how to handle the massive influx of people as we went. It took a few years for us to adjust to such a business boom.” In 2017, the family opened a second location of Seoul Garden on Olive Boulevard, and this past August, they turned the original location into Pocha STL, which features Korean street food, pub grub and Asian fusion fare as opposed to the more traditional Korean cuisine served at Seoul Garden. Although she’s the manager of both restaurants, Moon says for the longest time she just called herself “the owners’ daughter.” “This is my family’s thing – it’s our way of making a living – so it’s weird to give myself a title.”

popular dishes at Pocha STL

pork cheese fries The ultimate comfort food, these fries are topped with Seoul Garden’s spicy pork, cheese, a drizzle of spicy mayonnaise and green onion.

yaki udon Although the base of this dish is stirfried Japanese udon, the flavor profile is Korean. It’s very garlicky, slightly spicy and comes with vegetables and your choice of protein. Served in a hot skillet, it arrives at the table sizzling.

Pocha is short for pojangmachas, which are eateries based out of small tents that were once a fixture of South Korean nightlife. How does Pocha STL reflect that concept? From my experience, pojangmachas are really downto-earth and reflect the feel of Seoul city life. Anyone from salarymen to blue-collar workers to college students can pop into a tent and grab a bite and a nightcap. The pubs in college towns in South Korea are always booming as well, with people playing Korean drinking games; it’s really loud and energetic and just another level of social bonding. Considering these two concepts, I decided I wanted to provide a comfortable and casual space where people can come and have that kind of fun, diverse experience. I think it’s hard to find pubs or drinking spaces that cater to a culturally different energy. You have Middle Eastern hookah bars and Japanese izakayas, and at Pocha STL, you have the Korean pub. Our interior and décor, especially the murals throughout the dining room, reflect Korean culture and touch on that Korean street theme – I use some imagery of Korea in the 1970s because that’s when my parents were young partygoers.

What kind of research did you do to develop the menu at Pocha STL? I was inspired by the ever-expanding culinary and street food scenes in Korea. Whether they first appear on a Korean drama or YouTube, so many Korean food trends go viral. Army stew, for example, is a type of jjigae with ham, sausage, Spam, baked beans, kimchi, gochujang and ramen. Historically, it originated on army bases; it’s been around for decades, but it went viral because of Korean mukbang, which are super popular eating shows where people live stream themselves eating these huge meals. Korean hot dogs – which are more like corn dogs –have also become a big thing, and we’re trying to figure out how to do them at Pocha STL. I take these ideas, as well as ingredients from other Asian cuisines such as Japanese udon and some Chinese-Korean staples, and incorporate my mom’s expertise in traditional Korean cuisine. At Pocha STL, all of our meats come from Seoul Garden, so it’s the same recipes that my mom uses there, and she also makes foundational items for Pocha STL, including broths, stocks and sauces. You’ll find her in both places – you really can’t take her out of it.

fried chicken A housemade batter gives the fried chicken at Pocha STL an extra crispy shell, which is reminiscent of the fried chicken you’d find in Korea. It’s paired with tangy Pocha Spice sauce or a honeygarlic sauce if you can’t handle the heat.