“Um, are you sure there’s something here?” I remember asking the friend that first took me to Anthracite back in 2012. In the dark, only the Dangin-ri Power Plant towered ominously in the background decorated only by the residential houses at its feet and the Jeoldusan Catholic Martyrs' Shrine carrying holy embodiments of the 1800s. On my first visit, there were no landmarks to light the way, but in current-day 2015, these back streets to the aromatic café now have pockets of light flickering like fireflies on a hot summer night and the YG headquarters to boot. Grandmas fussing over toddlers at the playground are passed by stylish twenty somethings walking their dogs to the Han River nearby. Lost, we ask a stranger on a street for directions and we later found out he’s model Heo Jae-hyuk. “I just stay at home and I don’t do much,” he answers when we ask for a resident’s perspective of the neighborhood. “I sit around and study all day,” answers a student hanging out at Veronica Effect. While we don’t doubt they’re telling the truth, there must be a reason businesses keep popping up in these parts, whether it’s a bar, a three-story antique shop or even a bagel store, known only by word of mouth. On a Saturday night, I peek into some shops that have closed for the night and realize that five minutes away by cab in Hongdae, some of my rock band friends are going hard to a crowd of sweaty, loud fans. Here, it’s that feeling of watching the party from a distance with someone you care about and thinking, I don’t want to go back in just yet.
