With the abundance of cafes in Hongdae (홍대), you would think that finding a spacious and comfortable cafe to catch up with your friends or do some work at will be easy. But no. Based on my experience, finding a spacious cafe with the right vibe (which for me means a place with nice interior, at least decent if not good non-coffee drink options, plenty of seatings, ample breathing space and moderate noise level) in Hongdae is actually pretty hard.

Since most cafes in Hongdae are small or medium sized and usually have more of a hip vibe, I was actually pleasantly surprised when I first came across Cafe Gongmyeong (카페 공명). This cafe is actually spacious and has the right vibe. I first saw this place when I accidentally saw a glimpse of their coffee bar through the window of the bus I was riding when it passed by this place at night. If it weren’t for the bright yellow lights emitting from the coffee bar, I wouldn’t even noticed that there’s a cafe there because the exterior of the building just seems like any other building in Korea.

After I looked up what’s actually inside that building and found out that Cafe Gongmyeong (카페 공명) occupied the space, I initially visited the place days later solely to check out their intriguing coffee bar. The canopy like structure that houses the coffee bar is made out of wide horizontal wood panels that are lined with lights emitting from the edge of each panels, creating a feeling of being inside some sort of a wooden spaceship (at least for me). There are also a couple of different things that are pretty cool inside this cafe including a projector that is set up facing the wall next to the coffee bar that plays old movies and two big book shelves next to the front windows that definitely add more character to the interior of the space.

Greysuitcase Seoul Cafe Series: Cafe Gongmyeong (카페 공명), Yeonhui-dong (연희동), Seoul, South Korea.

They printed their menu items on the spine of books that are displayed in front of the cashier and I have to say this is probably one of the most creative and memorable menu display I’ve seen (took me a second though to realize that the book titles are actually the menu). I ordered their Cacao Latte (카카오 라떼) which was pretty solid. I came only a couple of weeks after their grand opening so their dessert selections were still limited. Although looking at their Instagram, it seems like they have now expanded their dessert menu and definitely have more selections compared to my last visit. And it seems like people are giving good reviews about them so maybe I’ll try their desserts on my next visit.

The place has plenty of seatings that have a good distance from one to the other, which works very well if you want some privacy while talking to your friends. It also has a big long communal table with power plugs that’s perfect for people who come to the cafe to study or to do some work. I originally wasn’t planning to stay for long, but after I finished taking some pictures and sit around for a while, I actually enjoyed the vibe of this place and ended up staying for almost two hours longer sitting there sipping my hot cocoa while reading.

Note: These photos were taken before the pandemic.

A little fun fact, this cafe is also one of the shooting locations of the Korean drama Thirty-Nine (서른, 아홉) starring Son Ye-Jin. You can see the appearance of the place in episode 3, where Son Ye-Jin’s character, Cha Mi-Jo, visited the cafe with her love interest, Kim Seon-U.