Seoul Cafés | Mangwon | Coffee Conhas

Our Seoul café hopping continued in Mangwon with a visit to Coffee Conhas, a portmanteau structure that combined the former residential building’s concrete-walled building with a stack of re-purposed shipping containers. The mix of old and new, industrial and vernacular somehow managed to fit right in its residential surroundings, as if Coffee Conhas had always been part of the neighborhood. From street level, we didn’t really notice the container buildings hovering in the air, though maybe we were distracted by the friendly pup who stood guard at the cafe’s entrance.

Do you see what I see? Squeee!

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the café pup named “Heart” (so cute) who we naturally fawned over and pestered with a million photos.  After a lot of tummy rubs and behind-the-ear scratches, Heart returned to guarding the cafe while we ventured inside for coffee.

Coffee Conhas’ drink menu largely focused on single-origin pour over coffee and espresso. For discerning coffee connossieurs, it’s probably worth mentioning that they used a hand-built, American-made Slayer espresso machine, renowned for its ability to manually control pressure in order to intensify or subdue the coffee’s flavor profiles. Slayer machines aren’t exactly common, even in American coffee shops, so you know the coffee shop means business when you find one in Korea.

We both selected one of the hand drip coffees, which could be ordered dark, medium, or light (we chose dark), and then searched for the the perfect place to spend the rest of the afternoon.

Directly across from the small, glass-enclosed coffee/barista counter was a set of steps which we climbed to a second floor terrace that opened up to the street on one side, and to a courtyard with bench seating on the other. At first glance we assumed that these indoor/outdoor spaces were the only seating areas available until we peered across the way and noticed shadowy figures moving about in the darkened interior of the attached building.

After climbing back down the steps we entered the cave-like maze of rooms on the first level, our eyes immediately dilating to adjust for the lack of light.

going up

We roamed around the cafe, exploring every nook and cranny and selecting at least four different spots before finally settling on a private corner room with the comfiest bright orange couch. To enter the room required stepping up and over a partial concrete ledge, making the space feel all the more secluded. Surprisingly, despite changing our seats no fewer than three times, the barista still managed to find us to deliver our coffee.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in our make-shift living room, sipping on huge mugs of coffee and wishing we could move into the coffee shop permanently. I tend to think of industrial spaces as more beautiful and less cozy, but maybe the large picture windows, crumbling walls, the light emanating from various art installations, and of course, that velvety couch, gave it a warmth usually lacking in buildings of this nature. After Coffee Conhas, we never quite made it to the rest of the coffee shops on our list.

At some point we decided that we should probably be more productive with the rest of our day (and stop drinking so much coffee). We reluctantly peeled ourselves off the couch and said goodbye to our new buddy, Heart.

The sun had begun to sink low in the horizon by the time we walked back through the residential streets on our way to the subway. We passed several adorable cafes and said hello to a few more cafe dogs, making mental notes of all the places we needed to visit when we returned to the neighborhood.

DETAILS

Coffee Conhas | LOCATION: Mangwon | COST: Given what you perceive is expensive for a cup of coffee, this place will definitely set you back more than a cup of house coffee from Starbucks. A bit cheaper if you order for take away. | DESCRIPTION: Part container building, part resurrected residential home that houses a coffee shop on the lower levels and a studio on the upper levels. Outdoor seating can be found in the courtyard or within the second floor containers. Inside the remodeled building you can find a variety of seating options including rooms set up specifically as work spaces or areas like the one we found that had more of a living room feel. I loved roaming in and out of all the dimly lit rooms in search of that perfect spot. I also loved that this cafe embraced the trend to move away from dog and cat cafes (though these still exist — another topic for another time) and more towards having a well-loved, well cared for resident dog (or two). Coffee Conhas does not roast their beans in-house as their focus is more on perfecting coffee extraction (hence the Slayer machines). In addition to coffee, there is a small, daily display of baked goods that you can choose from for a light snack. | VERDICT: Recommended. At the very least, stop by to pet the cafe dog.