Seoul travel guide_"Hongdaerian"s habitat

There are probably hundreds of cafes in Hongdae area. Just like people, cafes come and go.

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There are probably hundreds of cafes in Hongdae area. Just like people, cafes come and go. The lifespan of a cafe in Hongdae is not very long due to steep rent of the area and "Hongdaerians" that are fastidious, fickle, curious and ahead of trends. The long running cafes usually went through a number of renovations, change of menu and so on
There are reasons I love going to cafes in Hongdae besides the fact that I live in the area.

(This is like an overview of Hongdae cafes. I'll be introducing my favorite cafes in depth later in separate posts.)

1. Coffee (of course!)

Since Hongdae area has become more and more popular, the number of cafes have increased at a very fast pace and they've been competing fiercely to improve service, and most importantly improve the quality of their coffee. So good for us customers, you can rarely find a Hongdae cafe with bad tasting coffee.

Some cafes have come up with specialty of their own. Some cafes specialize in drip brewed coffee with professionally trained baristas and some in espresso with world's top class espresso machines and trained staff to operate them, some in variations of coffee based beverages like affogato(a shot or two of hot espresso topped on a scoop of vanilla gelato ice cream, yum!), mochachino's, Viennese coffee and so on.

@ Cafe Code

2. and cigarettes

Hongdae area is a smoker's heaven. Korea is relatively still a conservative nation and as a woman, you can't smoke without being fingered or looked at in most other areas of Seoul, but Hongdae is an exception and almost all cafes in the area allowed smoking inside. As you may know already, Korean summers and winters are known to be brutal. Well air-conditioned or heated cafes are the best places to enjoy your cigarette breaks.

Good news for the non-smokers, now there are more non-smoking cafes than before and a lot of cafes have divided their spaces into two; non-smoking and smoking. Yet, Hongdae is still a very generous place for smokers.

Including me, most of my friends are chain smokers. (I'm not proud.)

@ Coffee bean and tea leaf

@ Cafe Code

@Cafe By-R

3. Much to see

Many Hongdae cafes offer much more than coffee and smoking place. Many cafes hold various cultural events like exhibitions, small concerts, mover nights, flea markets and parties.

@ Owl Bus, band called "Howl Dog & Double Trouble"

@ Owl Bus

@Rayon Vert, Flea Market "Used Project"

@Rayon Vert, Flea Market "Used Project"

@Rayon Vert, Flea Market "Used Project"

Some pics from
http://blog.naver.com/1min2?Redirect=Log&logNo=130020308

3. work (free wi-fi)

A large part of Hongdae population work in areas relating to arts, design and music. I think that's why there are so many freelancers. In many Hongdae cafes, you can see people working on their laptops and canvases and the cafe that has many of these freelancers is always the trend leading one. Most of these people are trendsetters(I hate the term but using it just this time). I don't mean they are dressed in fancy Gucci or Prada but they lead the industrious, self-reliant, cool, fashionable life style. They are extremely sensitive to fashion, trend, interior, music but too cool to care and most cafes that welcome these people provide free wi-fi.

4. Unique interior

From vintage, modern, country, retro, you can find so many styles of interesting interiors in Hongdae cafes.

@ Cafe Code

@ Cafe E-got

I really liked the tapestry and mobile hanging from the high ceiling.

@ Owl Bus, The window was taken from an old bus.

@ Cafe E-got, Reminded me of Hitchcock.