Punk band Sweet Gasoline performs at Hoi Polloi's live music space in northeastern Seoul, Oct. 18, 2025. Courtesy of Chris Rettig

This is the third in a series of four articles about Gongneung-dong. -ED.

Seoul's live music scene has mostly been clustered in the west, which is quite a pain for people living in other parts of the city. For those in the northeast, a small cafe in Nowon District's Gongneung-dong has been working to make live music more accessible.

Hoi Polloi is not the kind of cafe you'd want to go for quiet time or to study.

"We’ve ended up developing the interior space of the shop to be a bit uncomfortable for students to study in — only a couple outlets, the music can get kinda loud, the baking and general barista operations are often loud, our team is all friendly and talkative and we more or less welcome a lively crowd as opposed to a quiet workspace," Chris Rettig, co-owner of the cafe, told The Korea Times.

Hoi Polloi in northeastern Seoul / Courtesy of Chris Rettig

Hoi Polloi, which has been around for about seven years, including under a couple other names earlier on, got its current name after Rettig was listening to one of his favorite bands,The Most Serene Republic, and the song "Anhoi Polloi"came on.

"At the time, I actually didn’t know what 'hoi polloi' meant," he admitted. "After some digging, I realized that 'the masses' or 'common people' or 'normal people' really seemed to click. It was a bit of a hard sell to my wife and team at the shop, because it isn’t really easy to remember in Korean, but I guess it’s unique enough and has done well to stick in people’s heads."

The cafe carved out a niche by roasting coffees on the lighter side, and they offer baked goods that are catching on, especially the salt bread. Rettig said everything they sell is made, baked or roasted in house, without "weird syrups and sweeteners," and no "exorbitantly topped breads and cakes."

"From the beginning, it’s been a core principle that we do our best to keep things affordable for as many people as we can so that a wider demographic can experience some of the more interesting coffees that might otherwise have the annoying barrier of high prices," Rettig said.

Source: Korea Times News