Kurarie, Apgujeong: a double-height atelier cafe by Dosan Park
Around Apgujeong, Apgujeong Rodeo and Dosan Park there are plenty of pretty cafes and surprisingly few where a first date or a real conversation is comfortable. I follow a few Instagram accounts that post well-designed spaces, and a new cafe beside Dosan Park kept appearing. I went on a weekday after lunch with colleagues, for a walk and a tea break. I learned afterwards that IU had been there too.
Before you go
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Timing | Weekday lunchtime is nearly full. Weekends have a little room between noon and 1pm and fill from 2pm |
| Parking | Valet: ₩5,000 for the first 90 minutes, ₩2,000 per 10 minutes after. The streets around Dosan Park are narrow; walking is easier |
| Getting there | About 7 minutes on foot from Apgujeong Rodeo station, right beside Dosan Park. A walk in the park or lunch in Apgujeong Rodeo and then over on foot both work, each under 10 minutes |
| Korean name | 쿠라리에 |
The flex of a tall room
I like large cafes in Seoul’s expensive districts. There is a kind of flex in a big, well-finished room on land this costly. The enormous suburban cafes look great on Instagram and, in person the rooms rarely hold me for long. In the middle of Apgujeong, the space itself is the point.
From outside the tone is clear: an ivory facade with one big window divided into four frames, KURARIE above, and a smaller line underneath, An Auteur’s Atelier, A Vault of Sensory. Above the sign hangs an AirWair logo, the Dr. Martens mark, which I will come back to.
Inside, the ceiling is what gets you. My office has unusually high ceilings, about four meters. This looks like four and a half or five, two floors opened into one. Exposed concrete walls, two big ceiling fans turning, a counter mixing wood and stone. Antique in tone, industrial in structure, and the room has real character. The people in it were dressed with intent: couples, tables of friends, a few people alone with a coffee. There is enough seating inside and out for a tea, a blind date or a proper date.
The core of the place is the void. There is no upper floor over the main hall, so the ceiling feels enormous, and a skylight drops daylight straight down in the afternoon. A vertical KURARIE sign and a portrait of a woman hang on the wall, and a vase of cherry blossom nearby did more to warm the room than something that small should.
When I wrote about I Like Mountain in Hannam I said the fenced outdoor seating felt like an Egyptian tourist site. Kurarie is the opposite: not exotic, but the restrained atelier tone of the fashion streets around Dosan Park. Apgujeong on the map, Dosan Park in spirit.
From the window seats you look straight at the park. It was spring, the grass was green and people crossing between the trees looked like a painting. I often plan a walk through Dosan Park that ends here, or lunch in Apgujeong Rodeo and a stroll over.
Desserts in purple boxes
The dessert case is worth the visit on its own. A whole pound cake studded with nuts and dried fruit sits on a big wooden stool, ten madeleines lie in a row on a silver tray, and a few slices of grapefruit and strawberry cake sit beside them. Someone was working out of a deep purple box by the counter, and I was admiring the color when a colleague told me Kurarie’s desserts are a collaboration with Keisuke Oyama, the Tokyo patissier, and that purple is his signature. His signature pieces are the cheese terrine and the matcha terrine, with madeleines, pound cakes and gift boxes around them. I am a complete terrine convert, so this explained why my eyes kept drifting.
The menu is handwritten on a green chalkboard under three silver milkshake-mixer lamps. The coffee side is a collaboration with Hiroshi Sawada, the latte art world champion, so the latte list is long: the signature Kurarie Camo Latte with layers of milk, cream and espresso, a Japanese whisky latte, a super espresso latte, matcha, real chocolate.
The staff were stylish in the way I like: restrained, well trained, and still clearly themselves.
I had just eaten, so I kept it to an iced americano. Balanced, no sharp acidity, easy to drink across a conversation. Next time the Camo Latte is non-negotiable; I want to see the signature done properly.
The merchandise corner is done well, purple and cream logo boxes lined up like a Tokyo patisserie concept shop. The coffee break gift box is in the high thirty-thousands and would make a good present.
Boots upstairs, tiles on the roof
The odd and pleasing part: go upstairs and there is a Dr. Martens shop, green lettering on the sign, boots on exposed concrete. Coffee downstairs, boots upstairs, back down again, and the whole building feels like one owner’s idea, without a seam. Fifteen or so pairs sit in a lit display box. People drift up from their coffee to look; on a blind date I can imagine the boots doing some of the talking. Not many were buying.
The rooftop terrace is the other thing to see. Black-and-white octagonal tiles, a railing, and that is enough. The building opposite is nothing special, but the floor and the edge make it feel open and finished. There was an event set up that day, wooden tables with glasses and napkins, so the terrace felt like an extension of the room. Too hot right now; in spring or autumn it would be the seat.
The staircase is black tile with a wooden handrail, and from the top you watch people collect drinks and find seats below. Mostly couples in their twenties and thirties, two women deep in a two-hour conversation, a few groups of coworkers. A slightly cool room, exactly right for a first meeting.
I’d recommend it to anyone who needs a cafe near Dosan Park to meet someone, to people who want a coffee at the end of a park walk or after lunch in Apgujeong Rodeo, to twenty- and thirty-somethings looking for a blind date spot that is safe but memorable, and to colleagues who want an atelier-style room where talk comes easily. If you want a quick coffee and out, watch the time of day; plan on an hour or two and it rewards you. Next time: the Camo Latte.
My rating: 5/5. Come for nothing but the room and it is still worth it.