Korean restaurant and pub coming to midtown Sacramento in former Highwater space
A midtown Sacramento space that has sat vacant since Highwater closed two years ago will soon see new life. Pocha House, a Korean pub, is slated to open around the beginning of next year.
The location at 1910 Q Street formerly housed Pour House, which the owners converted into Highwater in 2018. The desert-themed restaurant closed in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The property stood vacant for the last two years, until Sacramento couple Daniel Ngo and Judy Han signed a lease in June.
“That building has a lot of character,” Ngo said. “It was built in the early 1900s, so it just has a lot of character and charm and we thought it would be a great opportunity to fill that space and kind of bring it back to life.”
Ngo and Han plan to convert the space into a restaurant that serves Korean comfort food and drinks. The word “pocha,” they said, refers to a Korean street food stand.
“We’re bringing that concept here to Sacramento,” Ngo said. “Our setup is a Pocha that is basically a Korean pub that serves authentic Korean comfort foods and authentic flavors coming straight from Judy’s mom or grandmas or aunts.”
The couple, who were both born and raised in Sacramento, has been working on the restaurant’s concept for the last two years. They first viewed the property in November 2021.
Han is not a newcomer to the restaurant business as she and her brother own Aloha Sushi in Folsom. But Pocha House will be her and her husband’s first venture together.
Han said she hopes that the pub will help Sacramentans discover things they might not otherwise know about the food and drink culture of Korea.
“This is our dreams coming to fruition,” Han said. “It’s an exciting process. I think the biggest thing for us is just bringing something to Sacramento that we feel like hasn’t been seen or done in Sacramento before, and even more than that, it’s just our chance to show our culture and teach people something new.”
David Herrera, the Colliers real estate broker who co-negotiated the deal for the new restaurant, said Pocha House will be a “very nice compliment to the community.”
The couple estimated that the restaurant would open its doors in early 2023, but said they hoped to open even earlier if possible.