Beer Lover & Ranch Brewing: Detroit Pizza Pub in Euljiro

Beer Lover & Ranch Brewing: Detroit Pizza Pub in Euljiro

Originally reviewed on April 22, 2020

Name

ν•œκΈ€ πŸ‡°πŸ‡· ENGLISH πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
λ§₯주덕후 x λ”λžœμΉ˜λΈŒλ£¨μž‰ Beer Lover x Ranch Brewing

The name at this restaurant is both slang and wordplay, making it very difficult to 1:1 translate. λ§₯주덕후, or maekju-dokhu, is a mixture of beer and otaku, meant to portray someone who loves beerβ€”a beertaku. The last part is simply a loanword for the brewing company which sponsors the pub half of the restaurant.

Price

Korean Won πŸ‡°πŸ‡· United States Dollar πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
β‚©25,000 ~$20

Price is a rough average per head, excluding drinks.

Operating Hours

Day Open Close
Weekdays 17:00 24:00
Saturday 15:00 24:00
Sunday 14:00 23:00

Takes a minute for them to bring the food out, as it's made fresh. Come an hour or more before they close if you want to take your time.

Location

You can't miss this place, it's a very famous storefront with a vending machine as a door and the entire surrounding area is gray and bleak. This pops out like a sore thumb, fortunately.

Seoul Seek Recommendations

  • πŸ‘‘ Signature
  • βœ… Counting Calories
  • 🌢️ Spicy
ν•œκΈ€ πŸ‡°πŸ‡· English πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Price πŸ’΅
λ‰΄μš• ν¬λ ˆμ΄μ§€ μŠ€νŒŒμ΄μ‹œ μŠˆν”„λ¦Ό New York Crazy Spicy Supreme Pizza πŸ‘‘πŸŒΆοΈ β‚©22,000
μˆ˜μ œμ†Œμ‹œμ§€ & λ§ˆμ•½μ˜₯수수 Homemade Sausage with Drug Corn β‚©14,000
λ§₯μ£Όμƒ˜ν”ŒλŸ¬ A Beer Sampler (Set A, 150mL x4) β‚©13,000

There are a lot of pizzas here we've tried, but the NYC-Detroit fusion of a spicy supreme is the best. There are some gimmick ones, so use your judgement.

The sampler sets differ in type; ask the waiter what the day's special is.

Overview

This is a popular spot among the younger crowd in the area, but is left off a lot of food guides. The reason may very well be that this is actually a pub-first restaurant, sponsored by The Ranch Brewing Company.

This spot's signature is that every pizza crafted under their roof is a Detroit-style pizza. Yes, even the pizza we ate, despite New York in its name.

The Detroit pizza has a long history which at first glance, may jog your memory of a classic Sicilian pizza. You wouldn't be completely wrong; as the story goes, the first Detroit pizza was made with a Sicilian dough recipe, but hairs split when it comes down to the actual thickness of the pizza.

Depending on where you look or who you ask, the answer varies. In general, however, Detroit pizzas are much more thin than say, a slice of Joe's Sicilian on Broadway, and toppings are much more extravagant; no Plain Jane here.

We'll break everything down, but at a quick glance, the pizza was very good tasting and more akin to a fusion between Detroit and Sicilian if we kept tabs on traits. The sausages were perfectly cooked, and my wife says the beer was good.

Arrival

Yeah, it's... colorful

Yeah, like I said... this place is very hard to miss, it sticks out like nothing else on the entire street that it sits on. The entire storefront is custom, and the door is a functioning vending machine which you can get tallboys from. Over time, this place has become known as a go-to for pizza, and a pub second.

If you don't know how it works or need visual assistance with opening the door, there are indicators to help. Although it may seem obvious with a large PULL shown on the "handle" itself, it may be confusing to some.

Visual aid, with operating hours updated daily
This is what you actually pull; there is English as well
There's a kiosk outside; this is a waiting kiosk, not an ordering one, because lines get extremely long
We're in; the first thing we come across is a massive neon sign, Konglish included
This is the namesake, as a neon sign
The entire inside is street art-themed, with local artists' work sprawled across all four walls
A mural of Yoon Mi-rae, a revered American-born Korean hip-hop artist, and wife of Tiger JK
We sat here, it's a 55-gallon oil drum that's been modified to be used as a table; the seats were kinda iffy
Here's a table for four; we would've sat here, but they were too busy and we didn't want to waste two seats
You order items through a tablet; simply press and it's added to your cart
The left side is a free beer for tagging them on Instagram; the right says use your hands, not a fork!
That's ours right there on the top with New Orleans below it; sorry for the weird focus on this one

The Drinks

The Beer Sampler (Set A), which includes a wheat beer, pale ale, pilsner, and "custom" brew
French wheat beer
They have a pitcher of water if you'd like to drink water instead; free of charge
A little product placement

The Pizza

The pizza comes out about 15 minutes after we order; we ordered ahead of time through the owner; expect about a 20-minute wait if it's packed. You should be fine if you order a drink.

It is served on a grated cookie tray with a small spatula to lift each piece if it's too hot for your hands. There was no plates that I could see, so it's just a lift-and-eat type ordeal. I would have preferred a plate, personally; if this were a fat NYC slice I could fold, I'd be indifferent.

The pizza contains some pickled jalapenos, pepperoni, sausage (in-house ground meat), black olives, ham, yellow peppers, red peppers, and a light coating of garlic powder. Surprisingly, although I thought it did at first, there is no corn on this pizza.

The crust was a perfect golden brown, the dough was bodied and very nicely cooked. Everything was going for this pizza, even though I was skeptical about the ingredient mixture at first, especially the seemingly-random assortment of toppings. It works, though.

The primetime player
The full pizza
A quick close-up
Perfect
Top-down; this is an 8-slice pizza
Really nice ground meat sausage; very full in flavor and beefy
A very cheesy first slice
You know I had to get the vertical shot on the cheese
The dough was not dry at all, despite looking like it; very moist and good bounce
That's what we like to see; Lift Test passed
A more zoomed in shot of some more ground sausage
Look at that bad boy
A side view; thicker than an authentic Detroit, but thinner than a real Sicilian
A shot of my wife holding a piece up, showcasing the jalapenos and bell peppers
A shot of the bottom of the same piece; perfectly cooked
My wife takes a sip for all that hard work of holding the pieces up, and the sausage arrives

The Sausage

The sausage here is homemade and made with a 60/40 mixture of pork and beef; the fat from the pork and the lean beef allows the sausage's flavor profile to be more akin to that of a normal link you'd find stateside, or perhaps a veal bratwurst, more soft in nature.

The dish we get is one of the side-menu favorites, a mixture of various types of sausage, none explained in detail, with two large pieces of grilled corn, and small cherry tomatoes as a garnish. A few scallions trail the tomatoes.

The corn is deemed "drug corn" as slang, because it's so good, it's like a drug or something like that. The corn was alright, according to my wife. If you want something better, try going out on the streets and finding a powdered cheese corn stall.

Two massive sausages; one seems to be chicken, the other seems to be the traditional beef/pork
An aerial shot
Some strange garnishes; a little bit of powdered cheese, but the taste is negligible
Dig in
Upon further research, this is a turkey-based sausage with shiso leaf mixed into it
You can see the leaves are cooked while the sausage cooks
The sauce offered is a store-bought instant mustard sauce; it's alright, but the flavor is all-too-familiar
Two pieces down, and a few bites of the sausages
The corn; nothing really happening here, literally just some grilled corn

Summary

I have eaten a lot of pizza in my lifetime. I've eaten a lot of pizza in Korea. Although this is not outright the best place for pizza I've been to in Seoul, it would be completely fair to say it is comfortably above average.

As we said, this felt (physically) and tasted like more of a hybrid between what would technically be a Detroit pizza and a classic Sicilian slice. The thickness was smack dab in the middle of the two, the dough style was closer to a Sicilian, and the toppings were 100% Detroit.

The atmosphere feeds into the full experience; as you have a bite of pizza, you look around past the person you're talking to, to admire the interior which is plastered with small details the more you look.

The chairs were admittedly uncomfortable, but we sat at one of the oil drums, so can't comment on what a normal chair feels like. The sauce for the sausage was disappointing; I would have enjoyed something else, ketchup even, instead of that instant mustard sauce every Korean kid knows the flavor of from childhood.

The wait staff are kind, the service was great, and it tasted good. If you like pizza, definitely give this a shot, especially if you're used to eating traditional pies and have never tried a deep dish.

Be sure to take a pic by the vending machine door, too. That's singular.