The Sense of Sound

Monday Off Please

Written and photographed by Viktoryia Shylkouskaya.

For a long time, people have enjoyed combining food with music. Musicians performed during dinner parties in Roman times, and minstrels entertained dining guests at medieval banquets. Today, musical accompaniment during meals is much more common, and the music played is more varied than ever before. If you run a hospitality business – no matter whether it is a fine dining restaurant, a hip bar, or a cozy café – you know it: Music plays a fundamental part in the retail mix and enhances the atmosphere. This is exactly what Park Jaeman (a.k.a. Diego), the owner of Monday Off Please, says: “Music is a key element when it comes to setting the mood.”

Pizza restaurants may be commonplace in South Korea, but this one is no ordinary pizzeria – it is a venue that combines café, restaurant, club, and LP bar. Apart from pizza restaurants, it is a place where one can listen to thousands of Diego’s “Comme Ci Comme Ça Records” collected LPs.

A music school graduate with a passion for pizza, street culture, and everything chill, Diego opened the doors to his hip music bar restaurant in 2015. “With an open kitchen, open walls, and a massive open patio, you get to see every move Diego makes no matter where you sit. About the only thing more open than his kitchen is the ever-jovial Diego himself,” one of my Gwangju friends told me, and I would be hard-pressed to disagree.

Alternating between spinning sizzling pizzas behind the counter and spinning cool tracks during “Sofa Sessions” on the weekends, Diego and his helpmate Shin Piljun work double-time to bring their own affable rhyme and rhythm to the table with every meal, fostering an environment conducive to fun, laughter, and perhaps even friendship.

But how, or at what point, do we get to know that a person is our friend? As the saying goes, “It takes time to become good friends with someone.” I think I became friends with Diego and Piljun from the first time I visited Monday Off Please. I do not know how this happened, but I am almost sure it has something to do with the culture that Diego creates in his restaurant.

Diego likes collaborations. This is how Monday Off Please became a space not only for listening to but also for sharing music. Famous musicians such as June One from Seoul-based indie band “Glen Check”; resident Gwangju DJs Seop, Goat The Funky, and others; Seoul-based DJ Conan (from the Itaewon “Discoexperience” project); Seoul Community Radio DJs; Cheonan-based DJ Slowmouth; and many other friends of Diego have set foot in his Monday Off Please venue. This enhances Monday Off Please as a cultural hub, and that is all part of Diego’s grand vision, which goes with the slogan of the space: “We make noise, not pizza.”

Once I asked Diego what the recipe for a successful business is, and he answered, “Just do what you truly love.” Five years ago, when Diego had just opened Monday Off Please, he did not dream about making lots of money, accomplishing much, or achieving fame. At that time, Dongmyeong-dong was not as hip an area as it is now. Instead, Diego just pursued the things he loved doing: making music and pizza. He told me that you can only become truly accomplished at something you love, and that is totally true. A job that you love gives you extra motivation to meet your goals, and when this happens, the sense of accomplishment is outstanding. Monday Off Please is all about outstanding accomplishment: delicious food, great music, lasting friendships, and priceless memories.

But what about the food? Yes, yes, I mean pizza. Monday Off Please serves Neapolitan-style pizza that goes well with its menu of generic beers served in clear party cups (or a bottle of wine if you prefer). Diego has been perfecting his version of the Neapolitan pizza for close to ten years now and has honed his menu to the essentials. Cheese, margherita, and pepperoni pizzas hearken their classical roots. Meanwhile, his Hawaiian, truffle mushroom, and chikorita pizzas are the international crowd-pleasers. The staff’s attention to culinary excellence – from the daily ritual of making fresh dough, to the crisp, fresh ingredients – is a cut above professional, and extras like fries are pure deliciousness with sour cream mayonnaise dip on the side. Mmmmm.

If you are in the mood for some old-timey vinyl tunes, good pizza, and perhaps even new friendship, head to the back of the Asia Culture Complex near the huge array of solar panels to find my favorite place in Gwangju – Monday Off Please.

Monday Off Please (먼데이오프플리즈)
Address: Gwangju, Dong-gu, Jang-dong 67-14 광주 동구 장동 67-14 (문화전당역4번 출구)
Operating hours: 3:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. Closed on Mondays (of course).
Instagram: @mondayoffplease

The Author
Viktoryia Shylkouskaya is a 26-year-old Belarusian who moved to South Korea in 2016 without any knowledge of the country or language. What she thought would only be one year has since turned into many more. Instagram: @shylk.vick