VW

genus: café
space & place: 10 minutes from Hongdae station
span: Noon-12pm
costs: 4,000 for an americano, 3,000 for draft beer, 9,000 for a waffle set

VW almost gets it right on. A huge two story window, a creepy wood troll, and tables that you can write on. VW has a lot of reasons for stopping in.

This two floor café is amongst the most impressive spaces in Hongdae. The bottom floor’s tables are creatively made out of milk pallets and have some quirky artistic touches. At night the outside garden is lit up, and the weird wood troll looks extra creepy and the trees extra pretty.

The second floor has two big couches that sit in front of some fancy looking computers. Two large tables in the back have erasable tops, and come with a big box of crayons. Get your scribble on.

The quality of the menu is good, although it will test your ability to read some goofy hangul. Available are your regular café drinks, cheap draft beer, and waffles.

While VW is cool as shit, it has a serious flaw - The music sucks the big 고추. They have two playlists on perma-repeat. One is pretty much purely Beatles, which isn’t bad the first go through, blows chunks as you listen to ‘Blackbird’ for the third time in a night. The second playlist consists of Rob Thomas, Maroon 5, some random suck, and a little Korean pop (that is actually all right).

While the people who run VW are trying to be hip, and cool, and almost succeeding, they ultimately fail. How can you possibly be cool, and listen to a total of 30 songs? You can’t. After your second visit, be sure to bring the mp3 player.

p.s. There is a swank restaurant right next to VW. It would probably be a good one-two punch for a date.


I'D GO THERE: To drink coffee or beer with friends. Study, read, write, whatever.
GOOD PLACE TO: Chat with some friends, listen your ipod. Stare at the wood troll.
NOT SO GOOD FOR: Finding new music. When you are hungy.