We recently visited Cafe YND 223-14. YND stands for Yeonnam-dong (연남동), which is the neighborhood in which the cafe is located. The cafe takes it’s name from the actual cafe address. It is the sister cafe of the popular CAFE YND 239-20.
This cafe, mistranslated as “cartoon cafe” from 그림 카페 “drawing cafe” went viral a couple months ago. The cafe became so popular that the owners could not accommodate all of the guests. There were really only 2 tables in the old cafe, and an outdoor patio.
Visitors would come just to take pictures and to use toilets without ordering a beverage. Granted, a typical coffee at a cute cafe in Seoul will run you $5-7. But, the space was really too small to accommodate all the guests. When the owners told the customers that they had to buy a beverage before using the toilet or taking pictures, people became angry. Also since the original cafe was in a small residential area, some of the neighbors became irritated and reported the cafe to the government for making too much noise.
The cafe concept aims to make the customers the main characters in the cafe. Let me explain. Your typical Seoul cafe is full of color and fancy decor. Even though the people and the coffee should be the main characters in cafe, these things tend to get buried by very colorful interior design. The owners of the YND cafes wanted to create a cafe where the people and main objects would stand out, so they made the cafe design as simple and colorless as possible. In this black and white setting, the customers become the heroes and heroines in the cafe.
The new cafe is bigger and it feels a little bit more like a home. There’s the common area which has a bunch of tables and a vanity area. There’s kitchen shelves painted onto the walls and a place where my daughter decided she was having a time out. Then there was the dining room area.
Upstairs there’s a terrace, and there are a bunch of warnings about this area not being safe for kids. So I definitely wouldn’t bring my 3 year old up here but my 5 year old will behave herself so we took her up to explore. Isn’t this the cutest little space? You aren’t allowed to bring the glass cups up here though.
It’s about a 10-15 minute walk from Hongik University Station Subway.
Cafe Yeonnam-dong 239-20 Directions/How to Go:
Go out of Exit 3 of Hongik University Station, and walk straight. Turn right when you hit Dongyo-ro. Keep walking down the street as it splits, and bear right. Turn left at Seongmisan-ro. The cafe will be on your right hand side across the street from Stampcoffee.