The things that fill this space are generally witty. When you open the door and enter, you will notice a bar with stools made of particle board (OSB plywood) made of thin pieces of wood glued together. The bar was completed by making a support using a perforated aluminum plate and then placing thick plywood in a dark wood color on top of it.
If you look around, you will see a DJ stand illuminated by stand lights. There is a turntable on a bar-like stand, and pastel-colored plasterboard holds wooden storage boxes and forms a wall. Each of these storage boxes is sized to tightly wrap 12 LPs and a pair of JBL speakers.
As a seat, you can see a steel chair with a leather-covered seat, and a pastel-colored iron storage box next to it. In contrast to the white painted cement walls, aluminum blinds in different pastel colors hang on the windowsills. Glass lights hanging from the ceiling illuminate the bar and seats with a warm glow.
Thinking that I should now order coffee, I looked at the menu and saw text printed on greaseproof paper. There are cutely distorted mugs piled up on the walls, and the signature dish here, pudding, is introduced through an illustrated poster. Various architectural materials such as wood, steel, plaster, glass and paper are mixed together, but the combination takes place with each other in a witty rather than forced manner.
The perfection of wit is the host’s kindness in welcoming guests and the song selection. Choi Hyuk, CEO of Wit & Culture, tactfully serves drinks that suit the tastes of regulars. On social media, he describes his commute to work as a ‘working holiday’, and he also writes in his diary that he is memorizing the names of dogs that walk in front of the store these days. He jokes, “I don’t know how customers come to the cafe,” but he does his best to welcome customers, from drinks to music selections. The song selection list presented once a month is a natural mix of pop, popular music, disco, jazz, and electronic music, like an interior where various materials are harmonized. Is this the result of a long career at a famous coffee brand?
Jeongbalsan-dong, Ilsan-si, Gyeonggi-do, where Wit&Culture is located, has its own culture. People who walk through a shopping mall lined with famous brand signs following a planned route often visit shopping malls located irregularly between low-altitude residential areas. Like the nickname commonly given to areas with clusters of low-rise houses with shops on the first floor, the commercial area of Bamgasi Village is also called ‘Bamnidan-gil’. In places where residential and commercial spaces are combined, something happens all the time. Bamridan-gil, where commercial and residential spaces are harmoniously combined, never loses its warmth day or night. In the forest of large-scale apartment complexes where apartment brands are barred, people are constantly looking for ‘Oridan-gil’, hoping for a chance encounter.
Now, 30 years later, Ilsan New Town continues to attract people while maintaining low population density and wide, green parks as planned. Bamridan-gil, Bamgasi Village, located in the center, and Wit & Culture, which has established itself here, are also part of the power that brings people together. You can see the cafe owner memorizing the name of a walking dog and carefully placing a record on the turntable while watching the expressions of customers. Visit Bamgasi Village, where residential and commercial spaces come together to create a colorful landscape, and the joy of accidental discovery. When you look at the expressions on the faces of people heading to an unfamiliar alley, the cafe owner’s words, “If I succeed, I’ll have to leave for Seoul,” immediately come across as witty.
The humor that fills the space and the culture it creates will take root in Bamgasi Village for a long time. Just as the roots from an old cafe often become the strength that sustains the area. And just as the root becomes a deep trust that binds each other.
Wonjin Cho Columnist
