A Couleurless Cafe

My coworker Matt says that if you go to coffee shops every day you're bound to be approached by a Korean girl who's curious to know what your book is about or what you're writing about or why you're sitting alone in a coffee shop. No girls have come up to me yet, but I have been to a lot of coffee shops.

Koreans do the whole cafe thing much differently than people the US or Europe. Sure, plenty of people take dates to coffee shops when they're starting off their romances, but here dating almost exclusively cafes are used for.

There are coffee shops in Korea where it is quietly understood that anyone without a romantic partner is not allowed. Cafes with names like A Twosome Place and Angel in Us are packed with couples drinking expensive variations of milk and espresso. They don't even open until 11 a.m. in many cases, which eliminates the elderly newspaper-reading community. The drinks, like the clientele  almost exclusively come as couples: espresso and steamed milk, tea and espresso, espresso and water (otherwise known as an Americano). Straight coffee is a rarity outside anywhere but Starbucks.

The PA systems in these romance cafes blast music incessantly, be it K-pop or adult alternative. This is to drown out the frequent silences couples experience while they check their phones, ostensibly to communicate with other, less-significant others (but probably to play another round of Angry Birds or Dragon Flight).

The upshot of all this is that it ends up being impossible to read a book anywhere but Starbucks. In the US, I avoid the chain at all cost. Its inoffensive decor takes away from the rich atmosphere that makes me willing to pay four dollars for a cup of coffee at smaller coffee-shops. But Starbucks is the only place in town where I can sip on something without hearing every nonsensical lyric of "Ice Cream."

The best joint in town ( Starbucks near Suwon Station)