RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER

Pojangmacha

For months I’ve wanted to go to the little Korean shack out at 69th street. For avid readers of this site, you’ll remember my description of little white shack as one of the best Korean restaurants in the Philly area.

It’s an extremely nondescript building found wedged the middle of a parking lot out in the middle of a trolley turnaround a couple blocks past 69th and Market. I’ve been told that the name of the restaurant is Pojangmacha. I don’t really know how to pronounce it and have no idea what it means. All I know is that Pojangmacha has some of the nicest owners and best pajeon (seafood pancake) I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.

The restaurant itself has half a dozen booths and a diner style counter with the kitchen behind it. Everything is made to order by the owner and her husband. They have a liquor license and stay open late. The owner speaks very little English, and I speak no Korean, but she’s extremely warm and surprisingly communicative with a few words and a lot of gesturing. This helps, because all signage and the carved wood menus are all in Korean.

But sadly, Pojangmacha is no more.

After months of craving I finally went for dinner a few Saturday’s ago. It was great as usual and my girlfriend was loving it as much as I was. Just as I was settling into the happy thought that I’d be enjoying many more meals there, the owner came to the table and announced that after 17 years, it was their last night in business.

My old co-worker, who introduced me to the restaurant and was well aware of its impending demise was sitting at a table behind me. It was his 4th visit in 8 days. When we caught up a few days later, he told me that they were shutting down because of this redevelopment plan:

See that green space? That’s where one of the best Korean restaurants in the tri-state area used to be. After the announcement, the meal got a little depressing. I still gorged myself, but damn. It got even worse when a very large man appeared and started yelling in his cell phone about the place still being open and how they were supposed to have left the night before. He said something to the owner about changing the locks on Wednesday, paced around for a while and disappeared out the door.

At the time, the fat man became a Disney-style villain. I thought that maybe he owned the parking lot and was forcing the couple out so that he could add a few more parking spaces or build some crappy condos.

Later I learned that he was a local councilman, instrumental in keeping them open as long as he could. So he wasn’t so bad after all. But unfortunately, as long as he could was weeks ago. The owner mentioned some loose plans about opening a spot in center city. If they ever do, they’ll blow the competition out of the water. Here’s hoping.