Gangneung’s Coffee Street Grows in Popularity
I will have to check this strip out the next time I am in Gangneung:
More than 30 coffee shops are lined up along the Anmok Beach in the east coast city of Gangneung, 170 kilometers east of Seoul, which played host to skating and other ice events of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.Â
From rooftop terraces to a five-story all-cafe building, most of the coffee houses, which boast ocean panoramas, serve high-end pour-overs freshly brewed by skilled baristas.Â
Such large coffee franchises as Starbucks and Caffe Pascucci also have their own berths on the Coffee Street, dubbed a “holy land” for baristas and coffee lovers.
But they are apparently the underdog in the half-kilometer stretch of road selected as a “Star of Korea Tour” and one of the “Top 10 Must-Visit Tourist Spots” by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization.
Initially, the district was home to a strip of instant coffee vending machines in the 1980s. Anmok’s first two cafes opened in 1998, around when South Koreans began paying attention in earnest to hand-drip coffee instead of ready-to-drink soluble products.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but have any ROK Heads visited this strip of coffee shops before?
“have any ROK Heads visited this strip of coffee shops before”
Dude I’ve only told you guys about this place a bunch of times. It’s where we would go every summer.
Upper right side of this building they had a decent minbak.
https://map.naver.com/v5/?c=14354113.1246589,4547487.8301913,17,0,0,0,dha&p=srh0tLWvcu38hLzjek8Q4Q,-137.32,2.35,Float
NW end of the beach was great, no umbrella squads or other roped-in crowded nonsense. The Cozy Coffee shop made nice lunches although the last year we went there, that end of the beach was cordoned off for some BS preservation crap (2014).
https://map.naver.com/v5/?c=14353953.6817952,4547717.1412762,17,0,0,0,dha&p=FbgLKQ_h5fg1Dr5LSfbY4A,34.22,-11.79,Float
Couple beef places were nearby (can’t remember where) if you’re like me and not a fan of seafood.
And if you’re really desperate; Gyeongpo beach and all it’s no-parking, overpriced nonsense is about 10 minutes up the road.
After about 20 years of playing in Seoul or Songtan, I actually got down the west coast to Daechon in 2014. We had planned on finding a “pension” or whatever they call those cabin rentals on the east coast; but then we got sick and I got laid off.
Well, we’re healthy again–and I am working–so whenever the finances permit, I’ll try it.
Never have been one to pass up Korean coffee. Not that I’m a connoisseur (I drink Maxim or Tasters Choice), I just like visiting Korean coffee and dessert places.
One year we stayed at a pension in Seo Daejon on a mountain side, it was a bit run down but it used to be a chicken restaurant and we had the whole 1st floor to ourselves. Almost 360-degree glass walled, lots of mountainy wood-working inside, we were allowed to bring our pets. Was pretty nice get-away, especially for me because we were there for the week of Chuseok and I didn’t want to be jammed in her family’s house with 50 people. 😉
“we were allowed to bring our pets”
Pets? Really?
You can be honest. What kind of emotional support animals do you need to travel with?
I suspect, for positive affirmation about your “situation”, it is something from this list:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/sequential-hermaphrodotism-sex-changing-animals
Then again, with enough peanut butter, every dog is a service dog.
There seems to be a common thread in these non-political threads between CH and Smokes that always makes me think they shared a foxhole somewhere…
I just hope Korea gets back on a sufficiently stable course that it’s safe enough for me to visit by the time I can afford it again.
“with enough peanut butter, every dog is a service dog.”
Cats dude, we had 3 cats. Wasn’t going to subject a dog to the living conditions of Korea high-rise life. Considering we were living in Yangju at the time I wasn’t about to drive half a day halfway through the stay just to dump the litter box and refill the food bowls.
Only rule for my foxhole was no one over 5’6″.. you know the rule.. dug a deep as the shortest soldier’s shoulder. 😉 Once you go past 5′ you hit all kinds of hard earth and rocks….
I guess every cat can be a service cat with enough anchovie paste?
Yuck.
“anchovie paste”
I hear that was what you often ordered up on the Hill in Itaewon. 😎
Speaking of Itaewon, what are the major changes since 1998? I had read the Tiger Club burned, the “waitresses” weren’t Korean, and there were a lot more Harisu-types; but what about GG Kang’s Tailor Shop? Are there any good deals still to be found slong the main street? Is it safe for Migooks after sundown?