Gangam Pocha Barely Lasts Five Months in Restaurant-Killing West Hollywood

West Hollywood is decidedly unkind to its restaurants. Or at least one could get that impression from the recent news that The Horn lasted only four months in their Santa Monica Blvd. space. Nearby, the city’s answer to a true Korean drinking hall, Gangnam Pocha, has also shuffled off this mortal coil.

After big promises about actual kimchi, decent soju, and just the right amount of KPop pushing through the speakers, not much has been heard from Gangnam Pocha — other than the occasional Psy track as one sidled by on the sidewalk. A mere five months later and, poof, the place is gone.

Yelp reports the location as having closed after a meager nine reviews (that last of which was in mid-December), so it seems clear that the place never quite caught on with the West Hollywood natives. Is it a loss for the area, which may not have realized the kind of gem it had on its hands? Or is this sort of thing just simply better suited to Koreatown, even with the fierce competition over there?