A little bit of New York and Vegas has moved into town in the form of a new multistory pub/restaurant/lounge/club called Prost in Itaewon (prost is German for cheers). We checked out the monstrosity of space on Friday night with Dave and Agata and if I were a regular on the lounge/nightclub scene, Prost would definitely be my establishment of choice, simply because there's no real "scene". It's located on the main back alley of Itaewon, where most all of the restaurants and bars are located. With square footage found only in Vegas, the second floor boasts a massive bar surrounded by modern, tufted leather banquets that line the walls, along with a mix of antique tables and chairs. To add to the grandeur, floor to ceiling arched window panes look out onto the street below. The waiters spoke superb English, the margarita on the rocks had the look of something that was carefully concocted and poured; lightly sweet and simply fresh.
As usual, it must be compared to something similar that could be found in NYC or Vegas, since that is what it is trying to be anyway. The verdict? I'd give Prost a 100% all the way. First of all, if we were back home, we probably wouldn't have gotten our foot in the door because it would no doubt be trying to be "exclusive". Second, if we did get in, there's no way we would have been sitting at a table, as spots like that are reserved for those ridiculous individuals willing to pay a premium for bottle service. Third, it would be crowded which I hate. Fourth, the drink prices would have been double the cost. And last but not least, the best thing about this place is that you don't have to dress up, despite the beautifully chic interior, jeans and a tee shirt will suffice.
I also must mention that my distressed metal horse heads that I fell in love with a couple a months ago at an antique shop now reside in Prost. I had wondered why in the world someone had purchased this odd objects when I had gone back to the shop and they were no longer there. Now I know. They do look good on the bar, but I was hoping to leave Korea with them. Oh well.
We like Prost.
Those were my horses. Now they live in a bar.
Grand American style in Seoul.
Saturday Night
This past week was our friend Larry's birthday so he celebrated on Saturday night by gathering everyone at Troika, a Russian restaurant in Itaewon (the word troika has three meanings: 1) a Russian carriage pulled by three horses, 2) a cardinal number that is the sum of one plus one plus one, 3) a ruling group of three, a triumvirate). I can honestly say I have never even thought about having Russian cuisine, and Larry's from Ohio, but apparently his mom is Russian so it was a nice ode to his heritage. We had the whole place to ourselves, and tried everything from perogi-like dumplings to smoked salmon and caviar to pickled herring at vodka. I had chicken and pork kabobs, which I'm not sure how Russian those really are, but they were delicious.
After dinner, we visited Hal's new cigar bar called Burn that has been having a soft opening for the last week. It's a nice little space on the second floor in a back alley of Itaewon. He's still waiting on new furniture, but the vibe and music is there....just a tad too smokey for me. Following cigars, we of course ended the evening with a little karaoke.
After dinner, we visited Hal's new cigar bar called Burn that has been having a soft opening for the last week. It's a nice little space on the second floor in a back alley of Itaewon. He's still waiting on new furniture, but the vibe and music is there....just a tad too smokey for me. Following cigars, we of course ended the evening with a little karaoke.
Blueberry pie from Tartine
From left to right: Hassan, Lauren and Larry
pouring vodka shots to accompany the pickled herring.
pouring vodka shots to accompany the pickled herring.
Our waiter.
A Russian girl.
Left to right: Hal, Larry, Rich and Dave
A giant humidor.
The Cigar Aficionado
Needless to say, after a very late night of singing, the only thing that happened on Sunday was my first trip to the movies here in Korea! We went to the IMAX to see Mission Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol. The movie was awesome, as was the experience. The way going to a movie works here is you must purchase your tickets on-line before going to the theater. Since the theater websites are mainly in Korean, there is an English website that Rich goes to that purchases the tickets for you and you simply pay them through PayPal. IMAX tickets run $12 a piece, for the regular screen they were $9.....IMAX back home was around $25 per ticket. Since the tickets are sent to you via email, everyone simply shows their phones with the tickets on them to the ticket guy. No one has printed tickets. The closest theater is about 15 minutes by cab, located in Yongsan at the mall where my Emart is located, near the army base. There's no need to worry about getting there early to get a good seat because there is assigned seating! This is the THE BEST part of the entire experience, hands down, and thank goodness for the seating protocol as the movies are almost always sold out. As for refreshments, the Sweet Bar offers no candy (surprisingly enough) but multiple combo's including options like two drinks and popcorn or nachos. There are four different flavors of popcorn to choose from including butter, cheese, caramel and onion. If dried octopus is your movie snack of choice, you can add that to combo as well. The popcorn was fantastically fresh, the cokes weren't the size of small barrels like they are at home and the price? Two drinks and a medium popcorn - $8.00. You can barely get a package of Twizzlers in NYC for that. They show wonderfully funny (but normal) Korean commercials before the movie for everything from cereal to cell phones. And you're probably wondering what language we saw the movie in? English, with Korean subtitles. It was a great end to the weekend.
This was the more expensive combo: Popcorn, Nachos, two cokes AND dried squid.
Korean movie posters
This one definitely looks like a blockbuster.
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