Sinchon and Haebangchon are like Jan Brady’s of Seoul nightlife. Always in the shadow of their more popular sisters of Hongdae and Itaewon, respectively. And our wiki has also failed to pay its due respect to those areas, with nary a wiki page yet, whereas we’ve made a good dent in the more famous two. So one thing that’s been on my list is profiling Sinchon spots better, with hope that it can evolve into something as comprehensive as our Daegu nightlife articles.

I suppose that any mention of Sinchon should first include something about the Canadian bar owner Sean Watts, who tends the bar at Watts On Tap. Unlike most places that tout being ‘foreign-owned’ despite being on the books listed under a Korean manager, spouse, or partner, Sean went through all the very finest BS that Korean red tape has to offer a foreigner looking to have something in his name.

The bar, stretched out onto 2 floors, opened in July of 2005 and features a lot of familiar tastes and feels from home, which explains why it has attracted a loyal following over the years among expats. Things like dart boards, sports and movies on the big-ass TV, comfy roof-top patio and real pub fare, featuring wings, nachos, meat pies and the like. And you can down all of that with a parade of imported beers like Budweiser, Moosehead, Beck’s Dark, Coors, Krombacher, Leffe, Miller American Draught, Rhenania German Draught, Alley Kat – Canadian Pale Ale, Erdinger/Hoegaarden Belgian Draught & Guinness Genuine Draught.

He’s also made good use of theme nights to attract a good mix, such as open mike nights, but also language exchange nights for those trying to pick up not only English, but also Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish and so on, which fits perfectly within the nightlife district that triangulates so many nearby universities with big foreign language programs, such as Yonsei, Ewha, Sogang, etc…

To get there: Come out of exit 2 of Sinchon Station towards Yonsei University. Go straight about 300m to SK Telecom & Starbucks/Baskin Robbins and turn left. Go 75m and they are beside GS25, RollingStone and above Aroma coffee shop. They are on the 3rd floor & roof.