Koffee & Kpop

“Imagine the charming alleyways of Seoul, where people casually lean against walls, observe the hustle of passersby, and engage in lively conversations with locals while holding onto various tasks. Cafes, in these settings, embody the essence of Seoul’s old alley culture.”

After visiting Mint Choco World, I really needed some good coffee. Luckily, I knew in advance there was a Blue Bottle a mere five minute walk away.

Like Mint Choco World, Blue Bottle Yeonnam is located on a street corner that overlooks a grassy area. It is two floors, split in half on the first floor by the entrance.

It was designed by Teamvirals, which has this to say about the space:

“Teamvirals designed Blue Bottle Coffee Yeonnam by reinterpreting the alleyways of Seoul to suit it’s distinctive location. The space has been designed so that the culture of the alleyway, which used to be a multi purpose playground for children and adults can be continued by Blue Bottle.”

One of my annoyances is that Blue Bottle removed its design information about their Korean cafes from its website a while back, before I was able to copy everything and finish my mission. (It appears that Blue Bottle Korea took a step away from the main Blue Bottle in some form, as the Blue Bottle website no longer lists any South Korean cafes and when “South Korea” is entered in the location search bar, only Japanese cafes pop up. Hmmmm.)

Had they kept the design information online, I would have been able to look out for such things like the interesting tile placement that “effortlessly guides movement inside, following the natural flow dictated by the density and direction of vertical and horizontal lines.”

Definitely check out Teamvirals’ interior shots of the cafe, which are beautiful.

It’s hard to place this Blue Bottle on any scale simply because there are so many cafes in the Yeonnam area and there are bound to be better, independent ones. I wouldn’t make the trek out here just to go to this Blue Bottle. The Colombian pour over I ordered was good and my friend enjoyed her first Blue Bottle single origin espresso. I also saved her from a potentially scary situation where I noticed a line of something under the chocolate coating on her chocolate tart and innocently asked, “Is that orange jelly or something?” To which she replied, “Oh no.” Luckily, she was able to scrape off the line of hardened jelly and eat the pastry with no problem.

I really liked the fact that the cafe has a smattering of different kinds of seating, including a few on a couple of balconies, one of which faces the grassy area.

If you find yourself in the area, however, I would suggest searching out another cafe. I’m not familiar enough yet with the area to make any suggestions, though.