Samovar Tea Bar

Samovar Tea Bar is one of the places I wanted to visit when I was in San Fran. I found out about this place after I moved out of the city and so I didn't get a chance to check this place out until this trip. The cafe's interior is very different and intriguing. So I decided to look up what's the philosophy behind this brand. According to their website:

"Samovar is an alternate reality. A place where we can step out of the rat race. A place where we invite people to slow down, to inhabit the present moment, to disconnect in order to connect.... We’re about enjoying the basic goodness of being present in the moment."—Jesse Jacobs, Founder.

If that's the case, I definitely can see myself disconnecting and slowing down at this place. The interior does exudes a sense of tranquility and calmness. Definitely a good place to just sit back, relax and recharge yourself. I ordered the green tea latte and it was good. The aroma of the green tea was really nice and it was unsweetened so it gave a really clean taste. I especially enjoyed watching how the teas were being prepared. If you are looking for a good place to drink tea, I would recommend you to check this place out.

Hope everybody have a great weekend and for those of you who are in the States, enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend! :) 

ps: they have another location at the Yerba Buena Gardens, Samovar Tea Lounge, which is bigger than this one and have more food selections. 

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Paul Bassett

For those of you who doesn't know, I've been spending time in my hometown these past few months and now I'm back in Seoul again. Spent the first day back just chillin' with @unlikelysquiggle at Paul Bassett (폴 바셋) the whole afternoon after meeting with @soozee324 to wish her a happy birthday. I've passed by Paul Basset hundreds of times before, but never actually tried this place before. The places always seem to be crowded for some reasons when I passed 'em by. Ordered royal milk tea lattes and the earl grey roll and we were pleasantly surprised on how good the food and drinks are. And by good, I mean not too sweet. The cake was really moist and fluffy too.

Anyways, I will be staying in Seoul for a while so things should be interesting in next couple of weeks. You can follow along daily on my instagram or my snapchat (@greysuitcase) to get a peek on what I'm up to here in the city. 

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Sightglass Coffee

Up to this point, I have posted many posts about cafes that I've visited in the past. And if you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I'm no food or coffee experts by any means. Most of writings involved the description of the place and whether or not I enjoyed their food or drinks. Some common things about the places I've shared are: first, they are usually nicely designed or cozy spaces and/or, second, they have great selections of tea, non-coffee drinks, or hot chocolate. So with that said, to make it a little bit interesting, from now on I think I'll try to share a little story about interesting things I saw or experienced during my visit or maybe just something random about me to mix it up a little ;)

I've never been a big on breakfast kinda person. I don't really get hungry when I wake up, not 'til a couple of hours later anyway, so breakfast is not something that is mandatory for me. But when I'm in the mood for breakfast, there are certain things that I enjoyed the most during these morning meals. A cup of rich but not-too-sweet hot chocolate with a perfectly baked pain au chocolat on a warm spring morning is one of them. And Sightglass Coffee actually serves that combo. I had a really pleasant morning hanging out with my mom at this place, eating pastries, people watching, and enjoying the warm sunlight that came through the window next to where we're sitting. If their famous coffee selections doesn't really convince you to check this place out, maybe their beautiful floor tiles will ;) 

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Chocolate Snowflake Bingsu

Patmiok's (팥미옥) version of chocolate snowflake bingsu (초코 눈꽃빙수) is my favorite chocolate bingsu that I've tasted so far. The thing about it is that it's not overly too sweet and those really crunchy chocolate toppings are just delicious. They also offer two different serving sizes for your order that you can choose from—1 person or 2 persons (1인/2인) serving. This location that I visited is the one located in Sinchon (신촌) area, but they have multiple locations all over Seoul so you can find them in different neighborhoods as well. I would definitely recommend this bingsu, especially if you are a fan of chocolate.

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Saint Frank Coffee

Walking into Saint Frank Coffee kinda feels like walking into an office space, or a library, cos everybody there seemed to be working on their laptops or tablets or papers. And the place was pretty quite. I really love this place tho. The cafe is more spacious than how it looks like from the outside and there is plenty of natural lighting coming in from the ceiling above. Came here with the fam to get some breakfast and my dad seemed to like their coffee (can't remember what he ordered tho :P). Anyways, I can totally see myself coming here to get some work done. Just hope that I can get an empty table next time.

Wishing everybody a great week ahead! :)

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