The Coffee

A Japanese coffee brand that spread across Seoul

The Coffee arrived in Seoul from Japan and has since put counters in most of the neighbourhoods where the city goes to look at things. Seongsu by Seoul Forest, Dosan in Gangnam-gu, The Hyundai Seoul in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Anguk and Gran Seoul in Jongno-gu, Nineone Hannam in Yongsan-gu, Tower in Seocho-gu and the Centre Pompidou Hanwha site: the map is a run of retail and cultural addresses rather than commuter corners, and Sinchon and the Yeouido Finance Tower are still to come.

The room is the concept

What the brand sells alongside the coffee is a room. The design runs minimal and deliberately calm, and each counter is built to belong to the building it sits in rather than to a template. That is why the brand keeps landing in retail and cultural destinations rather than on office corners. The Seongsu branch is the one to visit if you want to understand it: on the Seoul Forest side, it has been characterised as having a Parisian sensibility and an intense atmosphere, which pulls the concept away from a straight Japanese-minimalist reading and toward something more European filtered through a Seoul lifestyle district.

Order simply, and pick your branch

The coffee is pitched as premium and specialty, and the way to drink it is plainly: the simplest espresso or filter order is the one that lets the house style show, without a syrup or a seasonal build in the way. Service is over the counter, so it works as a short stop as easily as a long sit. The brand's own home is in Japan, and the Seoul network reads as an export of that concept rather than a local start-up trading on a Japanese name.

Choosing between branches matters more here than at most brands, because each one is fitted to its setting. Seongsu gives the clearest sense of the atmosphere and the concept behind it. The Hyundai Seoul and Centre Pompidou Hanwha put the counter inside a larger cultural or retail destination. Dosan, Hannam, Anguk, Gran Seoul and Tower show how widely the same idea has been placed across the city, and the two still to open, in Sinchon and at the Yeouido Finance Tower, suggest the brand is not finished with it yet.