Fritz Coffee Company • 프릳츠 도화점

Went to Fritz Coffee Company (프릳츠 커피 컴퍼니) on a nice spring Sunday afternoon with Soo Zee and Leigh to do some work and play. It's been a while since I hung out at a coffee shop on a weekend, I forgot how crowded it can be. This place was especially busy and packed when I walked in. Since I was the last one to arrive, I tried to look for Soo Zee and Leigh when I came in, but couldn't find them anywhere. Apparently, they were on the second floor on the balcony area, which I didn't know this place have. The whole coffee shop is definitely much bigger than it lead on from the outside.

The place is famous for its pastries it seemed like, cos they have a bunch of pastries selections laid out on trays displayed across from the coffee bar. I got the usual, my usual, pain au chocolat with a cup of warm hot chocolate. They were good. I also tried the plain croissant, and I would say it's pretty good. Soo Zee and Leigh thought it was alright, the Old Croissant Factory has better. I never been to the Old Croissant Factory so I didn't know better. 

Anyways, one of the thing that happened during this visit was since the place is pretty big, they have this loud speaker installed on the balcony area to call out orders. The volume on that thing was a little on the loud side and it gets annoying after a couple of times. We just laughed it off after the baristas shouted out the fourth order number. If you are looking for some peace and quite, definitely stay away from the speakers or try to find a seat in the first floor area.

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The Best Croissants You Can Never Have

Remember when I said we came to Fritz Coffee Company to work and play on my previous post? The main reason why we came here was because Soo Zee and Leigh need to shoot some stuff for their Do Stuff Video. They were nice enough to let me tag along and introduced me to this place. Here are some of the behind-the-scenes shots that I took when they were working. Some of these shots were taken at another location that we visited after we left Fritz. 

If you haven't seen their video, check it out on the link above. And then grab a croissant after that if you must ;)

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Sunset at Gyeongbokgung

After walking around Hongdae (see my Lunch at Hongdae post for the first part of this post), Ken & I decided to go to Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) cos none of us have ever been there during sunset. It was an impulsive decision, really, so we didn't really pay attention to the time when we made our way to the palace. By the time we arrived at the ticketing counter, we already missed the last time for entry. Bummer. But the sunset was pretty, so we decided to just hang around for a bit, do a little shooting and people-watching around the palace's gate. 

There was quite a lot of foot traffic around the area. The people exiting the palace combined with the evening rush hour crowd made the area very interesting to observe. The tourists who stayed in one spot for a good 15 minutes retaking selfies after selfies to get that perfect shot, the locals who leisurely taking their afternoon walk with their friends, family, and loved ones around the palace's ground enjoying the sunset, and the office workers in suits walking in a rush without even glancing at the the palace, kept me entertained as we stayed and lingered there for almost an hour. One thing for sure though, everybody's slowly (and some, rushingly) making their way away from the palace. And soon after that, we decided to joined the crowd and called it a day.

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Gentle Monster Garosu-Gil (pt.2)

The second floor has the bathroom theme going on and bedroom was the theme for the basement floor. They did a really great job setting up and picking up all the furnishing for the rooms. And I definitely appreciate the little details that they got going on, like the soap they put on top of the sink. Nice touch. I definitely wouldn't mind having this kind of bathroom in my house btw :P

After looking up the concept of the store online on the Gentle Monster's website, here's what I found:

"Gentle Monster's 5th Space, 'Home and Recovery', is the intersection of space with emotional context of home and recovery. The space which covers up past traces presents emotional recovery through intuitive objects and different themes."

If you're ever in the Garosu-gil area and you are into nicely designed spaces and cool sunglasses, definitely check this place out.

ps: See part 1 of this post here.

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Gentle Monster Garosu-Gil

Gentle Monster (젠틀몬스터) has become one of my favorite store to visit in Seoul. Apart from the cool sunglasses they have on display, their stores are one of the most artistic, well-designed spaces I've ever been to, especially for a retail store. Every locations has their own distinct design. How cool is that? They have a couple of locations in South Korea—as well as overseas—and this particular one that I visited was the one in Garosu-gil (가로수길), Sinsa (신사) area.

This was my first visit to this location and I was super impressed with the space. It has 4 floors with 4 different vibes. My intended 5-minutes quick stop at this place turned into an-hour long visit cos I lost track of time looking through every floor of this building. Everything is so fascinating and some of them are weirdly intriguing. A good example of this is this white and red themed interior that they have going on on the first floor. The stark blood red objects that are displayed around the room really pop out against the white walls and furniture.

Since there are a bunch of shots from the other floors, I'm breaking this post into two parts. So stay tuned for the next part! :)

ps: see my post on one of Gentle Monster's Quantum Projects at their Hongdae location here.

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