By Lee Hae-rin
A small, time-honored pub tucked away in an alley packed with back-to-back stores, near Euljiro 3-ga Station on Seoul Metro lines 2 and 3, is decorated with warning messages signed by the owner of the building.
The now closed 20-square-meter pub was once a popular place for ironmongers working in the neighborhood's alleys. After long hours of manual work, those blue-collar workers would come by in the evening for drinks. Drinking draft beer served with dried pollack, better known as "nogari" in Korean, was a luxury the low-paid workers used to enjoy.
That privilege, however, is now non-existent following a court order issued on April 21 that evicted the initial tenant of Eulji OB Bear, a four-decade-old pub.