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| The Tokki Soju team, top row from left: Douglas Park, Willie Dale; bottom row: Kwangseob Shim, Bran Hill, Brian Yi / Courtesy of MAHT Studios |
By Hallie Bradley
Ever wondered how well Korean soju pairs with Italian cuisine? Find out at the newly launched Tokki Bar located in Ryse, a trendy hotel near Hongik University in western Seoul.
What started out as a onetime invitation for the first American distiller of traditional Korean liquor to participate in Ryse's Sunday Rooftop Party last October, has now become an entire bar on the fourth floor of the popular hotel.
"After successfully serving some cocktails made with our products, we were asked if we would want to build something on an empty space on the fourth floor of the hotel," explained Brian Yi, Tokki Soju's F&B director.
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| The interior of the new Tokki Bar / Courtesy of MAHT Studios |
Tokki Bar will be Tokki Soju's first F&B outlet, which they see as an incredible partnership that makes sense, as Ryse is just as into design and craftsmanship as Tokki Soju is.
Italian-American food will be served as an homage to Tokki Soju's New York roots, where there is a strong Italian culinary scene, due to the fact that, in the early 1900s, the majority of New Yorkers were Italian. The menu will feature Italian-American classics including chicken parm, as well as bar snacks such as jalapeno poppers. The overall vibe of Tokki Bar is meant as an homage to Tokki Soju's beginnings in Brooklyn.
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| Tokki Bar will serve Italian-American food. / Courtesy of MAHT Studios |
Having lived in Korea in 2011, Bran Hill, master distiller and founder of Tokki Soju, had an understanding of Korean soju and was ready when the opportunity to create a traditional-quality soju presented itself in New York. He was distilling whisky and rum in Brooklyn when the area became a hot spot for high-end Korean restaurants.
"Unfortunately, only green-bottle soju was really available at the time in the U.S.," Hill explained, "And that was unable to be paired with this new high-end Korean cuisine."
Rather than serving the low-quality "green-bottle soju," as Hill called it, which is made with neither traditional techniques nor ingredients, the restaurants were pairing their Korean cuisine with wine.
Then Insa, a Korean restaurant in Brooklyn, tapped Hill to create a quality soju for their restaurant. One thing led to another, and in 2016, Hill founded Tokki Soju with Douglas Park.
Though the idea and company were born in Brooklyn in the U.S., the founders decided to officially set up shop here in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province. "We thought that if we wanted to properly elevate the soju category on the world's stage, we should start at the source and bring it back to its Korean roots," Hill said.
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| Bran Hill / Courtesy of MAHT Studios |
Construction on the distillery began just as the pandemic was breaking out, so Tokki Soju ran into an onslaught of issues such as being unable to fly out the engineers who would help install the equipment as well as not being able to receive the necessary machinery parts from abroad.
"Unfortunately, the initial plan to export our product to the U.S., Europe, and Asia has also been temporarily postponed because of the pandemic due to the fact that several distribution companies we were working with went under," operations director Kwangseob Shim explained. "Despite the challenges, we are excited to be able to produce alcohol using Korean crops because we thought it would be more meaningful to our business."
Tokki Soju is made with 100 percent glutinous rice produced in Chungju. Despite the higher costs that using sticky rice entails, the company opts to use it as it translates to better flavor and texture according to them.
At Tokki Bar, consumers will be able to try out cocktails made exclusively using Tokki Soju and Sonbi, their Western spirits brand. "This means everything from spirits to liqueurs will be made by us and the combinations would be more thoroughly considered," Park said.
Furthermore, because all of the spirits are produced domestically and in-house, Tokki Soju says prices will be competitive compared to cocktails made from heavily taxed imported spirits. The menu will consist of cocktails, highballs and beer and shot combos.
"Even the beer is made by us, with the help of our friends at Magpie Brewing, and will only be available at Tokki Bar," Park said. "It is a rice lager that's crisp and goes well with various shots."
Tokki Bar will open in mid-May, but if going to the bar isn't currently an option, the products that consumers can purchase directly are Tokki Soju White 375ml (Limited Edition OX), Tokki Soju Black 375ml, and Tokki Soju Black 750ml. Purchase locations can be found on online channels such as Coupang and Naver, as well as offline channels in department stores such as Shinsegae, Hyundai, and Galleria.
Follow Tokki Soju on Instagram @tokkisoju or find them on their official website tokkisoju.com.
Hallie Bradley is a writer based in Seoul and runs the popular site thesoulofseoul.net.
