83page

83 MorE INFo j Address: Seoul, Mapo-gu, Donggyo-dong 204-53 Hours: 10 a.m. – 11 p.m. daily Website: www.fb.com/youareherecafe, www.twitter.com/youareherecafe Foodie haven The café isn’t all Hangeul and textbooks. You Are Here is a lounger’s dream, a place to find your bearings in the city or just kill some time. With two floors of wide-open space, a balcony for spilling poetry and a front yard for your dog to roll around in, it feels more like a shared home with a full-time kitchen staff than a café. People come and go with the casual air of neighborhood friends, leaving the impres- sion they’ll be back before long. The menu features most standard Kore- an café fare, plus a few items you won’t find anywhere else. Martina’s Chocolate Zucchini Brownies are one example, or if you prefer something heartier, co-owner Simon Stawski has something called Power Balls, a mix of so many nuts and seeds that even a nutritionist might have a hard time keeping it straight. “It’s really dense, but it doesn’t taste like health food. The chocolate chips give you that little something sweet,” he said, battling Marti- na for the chance to explain the recipe. “If you can’t tell, we really care about this stuff.” Their foodie passion is undeniable. Sun ex- plained that all 20 people involved in the café chose the menu, and they all had to agree on an item before it made the cut. “If one person said, ‘I hate this,’ we removed the item. We were really picky. We tried 20 different cakes, and now we only have two,” he said. That sense of care is all over You Are Here, with fresh flowers on every table and several electrical outlets on every wall – small details that make a big difference. “Even though we’re excited about the menu, we’re more excited about the space and what it can provide,” said Simon. Community offline Their vision includes a spot for bloggers and other creatives to meet, making up for the lack of studio space in Seoul, a problem that seems uniquely Korean. “In LA it’s like, ‘let’s collaborate, we’ll meet at the studio!’ Here it’s like, ‘let’s collaborate ... ’” said Martina, her voice trailing. They hope the café will bring Korea’s small but growing blogging community together for more joint projects. And why not? This café is already a meeting of two worlds, bringing the resources of two startups known for their Internet presence to a physical place where you can actually go and share ideas as a group. But like all big chang- es, there’s been an adjustment phase. “We’re used to getting instant feedback and reading comments,” said Simon. “Yester- day (opening day), when someone would buy something I’d sit down and ask, ‘How did it taste? What was the texture?’ I think I was weirding people out.” Eventually, the public might get used to giv- ing their thoughts in real time, but the café will soon feature technology to allow them both options, making the intersection of these two worlds complete. They’re also looking to put beer on the menu, but only if something makes it past their cutthroat tasting process. “We don’t want to sell Cass or Hite,” said Sun. “We’ll have a You Are Here beer.” The people behind You Are Here have made this a place of nearly endless possibility. The next few months will show the owners how people intend to use the space, but overall, the concept is meant to represent something familiar in a city that can sometimes feel cha- otic. For those who do come to study, there’s no place where you’ll have more resources at your fingertips. Buddha said the jug fills one drop at a time. The You Are Here café says the waygook learns language one cup — or chocolate zuc- chini brownie — at a time, whatever your pref- erence may be. The café isn’t all Hangeul and textbooks. You Are Here is a lounger’s dream, a place to find your bearings in the city or just kill some time.