How I'd walk Euljiro

을지로 · 5 stops

a late afternoon into the night

From the print alleys through the metalworkers to Bangsan and Gwangjang markets, this was one of the most important districts in Seoul from the sixties to the nineties. It still works, and the people who built it are still in it, with young rooms folded in among them. There's no single route here — the wandering is the point. Come late afternoon, Tuesday to Saturday: Sunday and Monday shut too much of it.

One person's route, in the order I'd walk it. No photos, no rankings.

Open this walk in the app

the route

1. The walk-ups

PAGEMAIL · clique records · Dive Records

Late afternoon: posters, then two record shops — one of them shut Tuesdays. All of them 2F or 3F, so look up.

wander east through the metal and lighting blocks as the shops shut

2. Sunset on the Sewoon deck

Beolsae, Sewoon · CHAMP COFFEE, Euljiro

Either one on the 3F walkway — both shut by 7, so in summer the deck outlasts the coffee.

~5 min · down for dinner

3. Dinner at a nopo

Woo Lae Oak · Sigoljip · Hwangpyeongjip Dakgomtang

Your pick: 1946 naengmyeon, LA galbi, or my most-visited door. Your name goes on a list at the door.

~6 min · back into the nogari alleys

4. The bar hop

Eulji OB Bear · Eulji Odeng · Magpie Brewing Co., Euljiro · Ace Four Club

5. Philosophy Lounge

필로소피라운지 · 1F on Chungmuro, mid-nopo-block

The rest of the route — why each stop, in what order, and how long between them — is in the app, along with what to order at every one.

Finish quietly over dessert, in a room that used to be a print shop. Half of what you'll remember is an alley you turned down by accident.

Walk it