Caffeina-

Korea has a lot of coffee shops. You Manhattanites reading may scoff and say, "That's cute," but I tell you, you got NOTHING on Korea. Delightfully, it is not just the wild prevalence of Starbucks that entitles Korea to the title of Coffee Empire, but the popularity of little independent shops, many of them really interesting. Here is one near our hotel I noticed because of its awning, which reminded me of the Orange Gate installation in Central Park (no relation, it turns out). Then I noticed the name, which was great, because this might be as far from Connecticut as it gets (also no relation).

It was either going to be a tunnel to coffee wonderland, or a horrible gaping maw that would close on us when we got to the far end. Only one way to find out!








And a tunnel to Wonderland it was! Beautiful natural light poured in over small trees (all real), hung with necklaces of felt stones. Why? Because they could! It was very charming, and sold chocolate chip cookies with entire 1/2 oz. squares of chocolate as chips! I could live here.

And on the way out, they wish you a nice, orange day. As testament to my first paragraph, please note that they are directly across the street from a different café, which we also frequented! 

 

It's called the Four M Cafe, and from the front, it looks like a painfully modern, dubstep-blasting place with dark furniture with sharp edges and tiny tables that look like they'll collapse under a single cup. Surprise! It looks like this inside:

Here's a close-up of the 2nd breakfast I had from the post about Insadong: blueberry panna cotta and latte. Good job, Four M! Way to shake off the shackles of expectation!

A spot we ate at several times, and found out later our client loves, too (because it reminds her of her Belgian homeland's coffee spots), was Le Alaska. 


 

Why is it called that? Who can say? Why French and Alaskan? Who cares? They made wonderful food and lattes!

 On the left, an apple... thing, with flaky pastry surrounding vanilla custard with roasted apple bits on top. On the right, another morning (TJ's identical shirt notwithstanding), on which we split two chocolate tarts, one with raspberry, the other with banana. 

WE HAVE NO REGRETS.

And they were so cheerful! Look at these buns, joyous in anticipation of being chosen to be Your Breakfast! How can you deny them? Answer: by going for the chocolatey & fruity options instead. See above.







 



The only downer at Le Alaska were these bears, clearly living lives of quiet desperation. 

Their existential angst was almost enough to put you off your food. But not quite.










Here was a spot I went twice for lattes, because they actually opened at a decent hour (unlike the place directly across the street from the hotel, which opened whenever it felt like it, mostly after 10). What I ordered was an iced latte, which is what you see on the left. Hiding behind it is what you see on the right, a scone with butter and pear compote that appeared without prompting. This is an institution in Korea called, "service," and I had forgotten about it until this happened! Lovely country, Korea.

So, now you know what to expect when you find yourself craving a hit and you're in Seoul. (That is, you will not be able to walk without a latte hitting you in the face and diving down your throat). 

Cheers and bottoms up, fellow addicts!