☕ in Korea #7 - Dirty Trunk
Getting up super early, & taking the a somewhat long-distance bus to Paju from Seoul for morning coffee at this place. Getting here was a bit of an adventure. Paju City is the northern-most city of South Korea (where the DMZ is located). The transit route is quite simple: bus 2200 leaving from Hapjeong Station can take you to Paju City in approx. 1 hour. To get to Dirty Trunk, you need to get off at “Munbal-dong” station, which is a station that’s about 35mins into the trip. From this station, you gotta walk across the street & go through this industrial zone. .. then uphill. The air quality that day was terrible; it was not only hot, but also humid & air quality index was poor- all that, PLUS the dust from the construction along the 12min walk was. .. “I wished I had purchased a mask.”
Anyway, I made it. Here is the back side of the coffee shop. They call it a coffee factory, & I have to say.. . I completely agree. The place was huge!!
Here’s the front. There is a lot of parking space available.
Entrance. Very farm-feeling.
To the immediate right, there was a display shelf of some plants.
To the left, there was an area with a continuous orange couch & matching-orange tables.
The hand on the left before the pillar points to the washrooms. & in front of the short hallway was this barn-like space. The super long table reminded me of a school cafeteria or community hall.
As you keep walking down the main “aisle” of the coffee factory, you’ll reach this “goods” area. Man, the floor to ceiling height was incredible.
They have a kitchen, where they have a small menu consisting of foods options. Nothing too crazy/fancy - some salads, sandwiches, & pastas.
Look at thaaaaaat! The shelf on the left are mugs & other merch, including coffee beans & coffee-brewing gear, & on the right, we have baked goods all lined up.
They have a nice variety of baked goods. But nothing really spectacular. They have a little bit of everything: breads, muffins, buns, pastries, & in the glass cabinet, there’s some cake & pudding options by the slice/cup.
This area smells so nice! The fragrance of coffee can be experienced throughout the entire coffeeshop but around this merch shelf, they have open dishes & small baskets that held coffee beans as part of their display. I wished my home smelled like this haha
This is the corner tucked in next to the kitchen / behind the merch shelf. This looks like a “regular” cafe.
On the right side of the till counter, you have this pub-y/lounge area.
This place fascinates me bcos everywhere you go, you’ll find yourself looking at a different view & the type of seating is diff at every corner. If you don’t like the table/chair or couch seating, you can try out this staircase style of seating.
After I placed my order, I took my buzzer & went upstairs to check out what it looked like. The mixture of “styles” continues =P
The large window & hall-feel table, with the books in the background almost gave off a castle vibe.
Or like a vintage library.
Now this setting sort of looks like the book room in a large house…
Do you recognize this view? This was a filming location for the Korean drama Search: WWW! That’s not where I found out about this place, though. I was researching for “Paju cafes” & this showed up. Then when I clicked into the Images/pictures for this cafe, I saw a screen shot of the scene from the drama.
The upper level is very much like a “U”. While the other side has some tables/chairs & some couches with the book shelves in the background, this side has a looooooong balcony with bar stools.
& mismatched chairs at every table. This brought back many memories of university libraries for me.
What I ordered: iced Americano & brownie! The brownie was super delicious! It was just the right consistency - not too hard, & not spongy. The flavour was richly chocolate & on top, there’s some icing sugar as well as small pieces of brown cubes. Super adorable haha & my iced Americano was strong ^^
Overall, this place was super interesting- its different “atmospheres” make it very versatile; it’s a place for one, or for two, for 4 or for 25!
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