A striking space built from a former shoe factory, this cafe opened its first location in Hapjeong-dong in 2010 and has since developed a reputation for its moody ambiance and aromatic coffees. Today, their signature beans—named after well-known writers Pablo Neruda, Natsume Soseki, and William Blake—can be found at several Anthracites across the city. Nearby is Anthracite’s Mangwon-dong location, a sunny, three-story cafe built into a residential home and furnished with polished wood furniture.

Anthracite Coffee Roasters, nestled in Hannam-dong, was designed in collaboration with BAU architects and comprises three floors featuring a rather intense and exposed concrete aesthetic. A brutalist haven, the first floor, which contains a coffee bar and roastery, features a bar made of used Euro Form, a material typically used in building construction to form cement. The second floor offers a prominent island garden and a long communal table with benches, while the third floor contains an eclectic mix of tables and chairs and an open baking kitchen, also clad in used Euro Form.

In a city starving for elbow room, Anthracite sets itself apart with its giant space located on Hongdae’s south side. The building is a refurbished shoe factory that still contains aesthetic elements of its industrial past, from the spacious rooms and high ceilings to exposed cinder block and even a conveyer belt converted into a coffee bar. The coffee itself is also on point.

Set in an old shoe factory, this Anthracite in Hapjeong is just one of five that the Anthracite brand has created from unique spaces. This Anthracite is dark and moody with all of the mismatched appeal it could muster. The ceilings are high, the coffee and desserts delicious and there are plenty of places to sit and hide away to get work done or have a serious conversation.

Whether its Anthracite’s stunning multi-level cafe, Center Coffee’s Seoul Forest location, More Than Less’s collaborative space with Berlin’s Bonanza Coffee, or the gobsmacking beauty of Travertine, so many cafes in the South Korean capitol have mastered the art of bringing concrete alive and turning it into something deeply inviting.

We found this coffee shop randomly on our way back to our Hotel from the Leeum Museum of Art. I passed by many other coffee shops, but I knew the moment I entered this coffee shop that it was not your typical coffee shop. First, their Coffee bags are uncommon.