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www.groovekorea.com / January 2014 40 FOOD & DRINK Edited by Josh Foreman (joshforeman@groovekorea.com) R obbie, Austin, Johnny and Philip are Texas men with a Texas bar, right in the heart of... not Texas. Where you’d expect to see cowboy boots, tumbleweeds and rough-n-tumble cus- tomers clomping around on wooden slat floors, there are instead smiling foreigners in sneaks and scarves, gazing out onto the busy Noksapy- eong neighborhood, kickin’ it with their friends among leather and iron and a tin ceiling that be- longs in a grain silo. Some of them are chomp- ing on barbecue or dipping chips, but they’re all tucking into perfectly mixed concoctions from these four stud muffins, a Pink Dolphin, a Bruce Lee, a Keenan and Kel, or maybe a mint and elderflower Barton Springs (their most popular cocktail). But whether their patrons are eating or drinking or both, one thing’s for sure: they’re all fixin’ to sidle up and do nothin’ for at least two hours here in the swank spread of the Southside Parlor. Totally Texan mixology Southside Parlor brings refned cocktails to the Itaewon area Having already confessed my afnity for gin and tonic, Phillip leans forward and asks if I’ve ever had a real one. ‘Um … yes?’ I answer, wondering what it is that makes a gin and tonic real. story and Photos by Shelley DeWees “Most of our first customers knew us from our old taco truck, Three Kings,” says Philip, a cheerful guy in a vest and not one shred of outward evidence pointing to his Texan heritage. “We used to park our truck in Hongdae and sell tacos and cocktails like crazy till 4 a.m. We loved it, they loved it, but we knew we couldn’t hold onto those hours for long.” So when peo- ple started asking them to come sell at parties and weddings, they saw an opportunity to kick off something entirely new. This open attitude toward start-ups is Robbie’s favorite thing about Korea. He chimes in, a be- spectacled and suspendered public relations graduate: “Seoul is the perfect place to be crea- tive. People here are so receptive to new ideas. It’s easy to start something new when you see the space for it in the market. We were tired of paying nine dollars for crappy cocktails, so we thought others probably were too.” Three