SouthGate: A Center City pub with a shot of Seoul

The Hwang family, who own Center City's Oh So Good, are going farther up the food chain with SouthGate, a Korean-inspired pub, replacing the landmark Tangier at 18th and Lombard Streets.

It's a most dramatic transformation from the days of Jack Roe, who shut down Tangier last August after 32 years across from the old Graduate Hospital.

Opening is penciled in for Tuesday, July 21.

Roe's headless camel and beer fridges are gone, and so is everything else. The building was stripped down to its bones for necessary structural repairs and put back together. (The bar is new but it's in the same place. It has 12 taps, one fewer than Tangier.)

The room is sleek and monochromatic, with rectangular ceramic wall tiles set in a parquet pattern, long Edison bulbs over the bar, windows you can now actually see through, and an open kitchen set behind a glass window. A wild abstract painting by Jeff Cylkowski adds a dash of color to the rear.

The Hwangs chose the name SouthGate - as in Namdaemun, the open-air market in Seoul where people eat and drink 24 hours a day. It's also a play on the bar's location, bridging Rittenhouse just to the north and South Street (as in, Southwest Center City) at its doorstep.

Owner Peter Hwang said the family decided that Philadelphia was ready for a Korean bar, which have become popular in areas where there are heavy concentrations of Koreans, like L.A. and New York.

"We figured we'd bring something that's appealing and accessible to the common person," Hwang said. "A lot of the straight-up Korean restaurants in [downtown] Philadelphia have not done so well - we figured we would do it better. Also, every hipster place in all of Philadelphia is offering a Korean item by throwing kimchi on it. But that doesn't make it Korean."

Chef Clara Park, who counts Osteria in Philly, Momofuko Ko in New York, and Redd in Napa Valley among her stops, came to the project in a serendipitous way.

Hwang and his wife, Mindy Kang, were watching the Food Network show Chopped last summer when she realized that the slender chef making soy-glazed bluefish with pomme puree - and winning $10,000 - was the cousin of Mindy's best childhood friend, Nancy Park. (All are second-generation Korean American.)

"She found my website and cold-emailed me after we hadn't seen each other in 20 years," Park said. "She said, 'We loved you. We're opening a restaurant. We'd love to talk to you.' The rest is history."

Park and the Hwangs decided that SouthGate would serve "your favorite bar food, done really well, with Korean influences," Park said. "This is kind of like the Korean spirit - very social, food eaten with friends."

There's even a Korean term for bar snacks - anju.

"They kind of said, 'Do what you want. Let your imagination run wild,'" said Park.

Park is loath to release her menu yet, though she says she will offer a burger made of bulgogi-style beef, served with homemade pickles, scallion salad and topped with ssamjang mayo.

Park starts with the peasant food known as hoppang (a bun), stuffing hers with pork belly that's been cured in spices for a day and then braised, and then mixed with sweet potato. It's served with a honey-like soy/caramel sauce.

Korean fried chicken will be on the menu. But it won't be Park's. "The guy that we have is the wing king," she said. "I know I'm the chef. But we're all on the same page. He does wings better than I do, so he's doing them."

"Something that we've been playing with ... What's the ubiquitous Italian small-bite?" Park asked. "Arancini, right? Who doesn't like a fried rice ball? Who else eats a ton of rice? Korean people! So I played around with a sushi rice arancini and because it's summer, and corn is so delicious, and I like the sweet and savory, I made Koreancini."

(Served with a grape tomato sauce, it is an addictive, crunchy, nongreasy mouthful of hot, creamy rice.)

Park also will cook traditional Korean: hoedeopbap (rice bowl with raw fish), bibimbap (rice bowl with savory toppings), and chicken tonkatsu, for example.

On the dessert side, Park let on that she is adding misugaru - the common mixed-grain drink - to a shortcake that she tops with berries.

Besides the dozen beers on tap, the bar will also serve cocktails.