Aqua Duck Pizza Pub overcomes curse, counts blessings

By Jon Dunbar

• Published Apr 4, 2024 2:36 PM KST
• Updated Apr 5, 2024 1:00 PM KST

Bizarre, malicious attacks sabotage against foreign-owned businesses in Korea turn out not to be so rare. After an article last month detailed the coordinated negative-offensive reviews on Instagram against Tom's Pizza, Brandon Harkins, the owner of Aqua Duck Pizza Pub in eastern Seoul's Majang-dong, shared his own story of how a curse was placed on him, and what he did to overcome this mystical attack.

One day while doing some remodeling work about two years ago, he said he found an envelope tucked conspicuously under one of the seats. When he opened it, he found a message written in Chinese characters. His curiosity piqued, he asked a friend who understood Chinese what it said.

"To our surprise it was a curse someone had put on my restaurant, wishing bad fortune upon my business," Harkins told The Korea Times. "It was both funny and disturbing at the same time, thinking how someone could go to the trouble of making a curse and then sneaking it in my place."

He didn't take it too seriously, but his Korean wife had a stronger reaction when she found out he opened the envelope.

"She insisted I go to a temple to 'cleanse' the bad luck off of myself in a sense," he said. "I didn’t really believe that I was cursed or anything, but to put my wife at ease, I went along with her worries."

She told him to go to Doseon Temple on Mount Bukhan in northern Seoul.

"The road that enters into the temple has these giant wooden warrior-like statues that are supposed to ward off bad spirits and keep them from entering the temple, or at least that is what I have been told. So, I made sure to pass through those guards. Inside I did some prayers, bows, and made some offerings," Harkins recounted.

"The next day I opened the restaurant was the busiest it had ever been."

He said the incident didn't make a believer out of him, but admitted he has returned to the temple a few times since then.

Majang-dong's hidden food treasure

In the meantime, Aqua Duck is making believers of Seoul's pizza-loving foodie communities.

The pizzas are excellent, with dough that is crunchy on the outside but fluffy and slightly chewy inside. To get the perfect texture, Harkins said he ferments the dough slowly over several days in multiple stages and temperatures to give it a full flavor and break down the gliadin in the dough. "You won’t feel bloated after eating my pizza like you do with a lot of others," he claimed.

Harkins prepares the toppings meticulously, not skimping on quality, and he cubes the cheese by hand. The saue is his premium blend of imported tomatoes and herbs.

Harkins says some customers have said the pizza reminds them of New York style, but he brushed off the comparison because of different techniques used.

"In fact, I wouldn’t describe it as any particular style other than my own," he said.

And even that style fluctuates over time.

"My pizzas from four years ago, to six months ago, to today, are different," he said. "I’m constantly tweaking my recipe, my fermentation method, even the way I bake the pie, to make it better. The result is a kind of living pizza that gets better with time."

When Aqua Duck originally opened in late 2019, shortly before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harkins had other plans for the business. He originally wanted to focus more on craft beer, having been a brewer himself.

"I originally had two partners who backed out before opening. One got cold feet and the other decided to leave Korea. So being left by myself, I didn’t have the capital or manpower to do the brewpub alone. So that’s how I fell into pizza," he admitted. "At that time, I knew nothing about making pizza. So, in the beginning, I’d say my pizzas were average at best. "As I opened two months before COVID hit, the downtime I had during that period gave me a lot of room to experiment with my pizzas."

In order to improve his pizza craft, he pored through culinary textbooks, blogs and YouTube videos. And whenever he went back to the U.S., he would eat as much pizza as he could — for benchmarking purposes of course.

Early last year, enthusiastically positive reviews of Aqua Duck's pizza started appearing in English-language online communities, and Harkins' efforts started paying off. People were excited to try a new pizza place emerging from the pandemic, and Aqua Duck was the next frontier.

It may have stayed off the radar a little longer not just from the pandemic, but due to its location, which isn't well-known to that many foreign foodies. It's no Itaewon or Hongdae, but located right outside Majang Station on Seoul Metro Line 6, it's not too difficult to reach. It's up the street from Majang Meat Market, and also not far from Hanyang University as well as Cheonggye Stream, so the place has always been able to attract a local clientele.

"Why Majang? I spent about six months searching every nook and cranny of Seoul, trying to find a spot that called to me and fit my budget," he said. "I was telling a friend that I was getting discouraged because I felt like I was never going to find a place and he recommended Majang. I visited the area in April 2019 and stumbled upon the spot where I’m now located. The street was lively with people bustling to the meat market, going for a stroll along Cheonggye Stream. I thought I could possibly fit in here. Before I signed the contract, I came and visited the area for about a week to get a feel for the neighborhood and it just felt right."

Although he loves the area, it has also been difficult, especially due to the years of pandemic restrictions.

"To be honest, it has been tough being out here, especially during COVID. It’s a miracle I was able to survive that time. Being up on the second floor and also being out of the place for this kind of neighborhood leads to business coming in waves instead of having a steady stream of customers week to week. But I’ve developed a good base of regulars and have managed to make it work," he said.

He has certainly made the most of the space, transforming it into a paradise in the middle of the metropolis.

"When I was designing and building everything, I wanted to create a place that felt like a bit of an escape from the bustling life of Seoul outside…something that made customers feel like they would have a short retreat from the stresses of life and enjoy some good food at the same time," he said. "I also wanted to make a space comforting for me to come to work in every day as well. To have an environment that balanced out the stress of running a business."

He built the interior himself using recycled wood and materials, some of which came from Magpie Brewing's former Hongdae location which closed in 2017. He was able to do a lot, giving the place a somewhat tiki or Polynesian island vibe.

"Almost every day when new customers walk in the door I hear, 'Wow, I feel like we are in Bali,' 'This place feels like it should be in Itaewon,' 'I had no idea a place like this would be in Majang,' 'Why would you open a place like this in Majang' and 'Are we still in Korea?' When I hear that I feel like I accomplished what I set out in designing the place," he said.

He has certainly crafted a unique dining experience, while keeping the budget affordable and doing everything himself.

Pizza spirit

"It may sound cheesy, but everything about this place… I wanted this place to have a spirit of sorts," he said.

"So in the essence of that, when I was coming up with the name Aqua Duck, I wanted to include someone who is very dear to me in naming my place… my son. When I come to work every day and see my sign outside, I’d be reminded of what I was working so hard for and to encourage me to never give up and do whatever I had to make this venture work."

In order to create the name, he made a long list of things about his son and his interests, which included water and ducks.

"When I was playing with the words, I put together Aqua Duck and it just felt right to me," he said.

Harkins' son has a genetic disorder called Fragile X syndrome, a condition which causes mental and physical disability.

Harkins' son has been going through various therapies and visiting clinics since he was a toddler in hopes they could mitigate his struggles as he grows. While Harkins says his son has made progress, he admitted it hasn't been an easy journey.

"This business has been my way of trying to make enough money to make sure he’s taken care of after I’m gone," Harkins said. "Probably the most difficult thing for me running the restaurant is that I’m away from home so much and miss out on a lot with the family. I feel bad that I can’t be there to help my wife more."

While he works until late hours, his wife takes care of things at home and brings their son to therapy. At one time, that meant traveling four hours a day to visit a certain specialist clinic away from the city.

Harkins admitted that because of his condition his son doesn't fully comprehend much about the restaurant named for him.

"It’s difficult for him to express his opinion on things," he said. "But, he does like visiting here and he enjoys my pizza."

Aqua Duck opens Tuesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. Last orders Tuesday to Thursday is at 10 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday at 11 p.m. It is closed Sunday and Monday.

Visit fb.com/AquaDuckPizza or follow @aquaduckpizza on Instagram for more information.