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Zest

Seoul

• The Best Bar in Korea 2024, sponsored by Naked Malt

A true celebration of all things local, Zest has become Seoul’s prime example of what a truly modern Korean bar looks like. Founded by the ever-sunny Dohyung ‘Demie’ Kim – formerly of Alice in Cheongdam and winner of the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award 2024 – along with fellow Korean bar sector stalwarts Sean Woo, Jisu Park and Noah Kwon, it has been voted The Best Bar in Korea for the second year.

The bar itself is minimalist in style, with a sleek, golden-hued back bar with no bottles on display and no labels in sight. This no-excess approach extends to the team’s sustainability policies too, as minimal waste is the name of the game with each ingredient utilised to the utmost degree. The compact cocktail list feature myriad local ingredients: for example, the Jeju Garibaldi includes speciality regional oranges and Gujwa village carrots. The Jeju orange, or hallabong, is the famous fruit of South Korea’s Jeju Island and the team upcycles the peels to redistill them into Zest’s house gin and turns the pulp into cordial or sauerkraut. Uncommon local spirits take centre stage in drinks like Oh My G!bson, where citrus cardamom gin and Italian vermouth meet omegi artisanal sour yakju and seasonal pickles.

Beyond sustainability in the glass, the team also creates its own carbonated drinks, eliminating further plastic and can wastage and guests can observe the process of crafting and creating at the bar’s open prep lab.

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