The South Korean Coffee Culture Wave Hits LA (2024)

All over Los Angeles, long lines form with avid coffee drinkers at places like Damo Teahouse, Camel Coffee, Harucake, and Series A Coffee — trendy South Korean-style cafes that serve inventive, colorful drinks and Instagrammable snacks. Though these cafes are somewhat tamer than the kaleidoscopic rows of similar shops that dot the streets of Seoul, the format has taken Los Angeles by storm, gaining bands of loyal patrons eager to get their hands on drinks like matcha Einspänners, corn lattes, and dalgona coffees.

The menus are only one element of what makes Los Angeles’s Seoul-influenced cafes special. These operators embrace the essence of South Korean cafe culture, where, often, nothing seems off limits — think salt ponds, giant croissants, and poop emoji decor — and where casual communal enjoyment of the drinks and space is emphasized on social media. Angelenos have responded to the micro-attention to detail reflected in the cafes’ decor and drinks, visible in the queue pouring outside of stores like Damo Tea House, which opened at the end of 2022 and quickly developed a cult following for its Einspänner drinks. The Einspänner, a classic Viennese coffee that consists of espresso topped with a thick layer of whipped cream, has been adopted by Korean coffee drinkers and can be found in nearly every corner of Seoul.

With Damo, founder Ted Nam worked intentionally to capture the trendiness of cafes in Korea. Nam says that the South Korean-style cafe infusion has energized the coffee scene in Los Angeles, but that its popularity is not merely about the cafe being a South Korea transplant or Korean-owned. “Being a Korean-owned cafe alone is not really what makes these spots resonate,” he says. “I think it’s the meticulous attention to detail that is characteristic of many cafes in Korea, as well as their ability to transform ideas into realities. There’s such an inclination to follow and align with trends while maintaining individuality, and I think this mindset is what resonates.”

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Nam had always loved making coffee and tea as a hobby. He says that opening a cafe in Koreatown seemed like the best way to build upon ideas he had found in the ones he frequented in Korea. “When I decided to open a spot in LA, I wanted to bring [something] new and exciting, something different from the boba and milk tea, which have always been mainstream here,” he says.

At Damo, the matcha Einspänner and hojicha Einspänner, in particular, have been hits among visitors, many of whom venture to Koreatown just to try the velvety, cream-topped drinks. The drinks program at Damo transcends viral coffee culture: the cafe also prepares a classic Korean tea service, complete with porcelain teapots, teacups, a tea bowl, and an hourglass to measure the steep time. An assorted platter of traditional Korean snacks complements the tea, plus a chewy rice cake waffle made with mugwort, an herbaceous, slightly bitter plant sometimes incorporated into Korean desserts, and served with a side of cream.

Just a couple blocks away from Damo, Harucake is another Koreatown cafe that has seen its popularity — and lines — grow rapidly in the last year. The cake and coffee shop took social media by storm with distinctly Korean desserts and soosoo (pronounced sue-sue) latte, a coffee drink topped with sweet, fresh corn cream. Owner Ellie You is especially proud of her minimalist cakes that come in flavors like mugwort injeolmi, sweet potato, lotus mocha, and Mont Blanc chestnut. “For me, these desserts hold personal significance and remind me of the treats my grandmother used to give me in Korea,” You says. “I wanted my connection to my heritage to be the driving force.”

Cathy Park

You says she has tried to imbue Harucake with “Korean charm,” deftly curating its decor, packaging for its food and drink, and its home goods available for sale. Her efforts are evident in Harucake’s pastel yellow walls; minimalist-chic merchandise like white mugs and bags with only a small, black smiley face logo; and quirky cake toppers like teddy bear figurines and cloud-shaped candles, all of which has helped the store stand out among the slew of Seoul-inspired cafes in Koreatown. “I believe the immersive environments, the vibrancy, and creativity of these cafes is what people are drawn to,” You says.

In 2024, these viral cafes have started to extend beyond Koreatown’s borders, including with the recent opening of Korean chain Camel Coffee in Los Angeles at the former Cafe Caravan space. The Los Feliz space, decorated with vintage furniture and art, serves Camel’s signature drinks from Korea, including the Camel Coffee, an 8-ounce drink with two shots of espresso, milk, and a cream top, as well as the MSGR, a multigrain shake known as misugaru. Le Tigre is a small, dense and buttery financier-like pastry served at the shop that derives its recipe from Korea.

Joshua Park and Alice Kim, the husband-and-wife duo behind Los Angeles’s Camel Coffee, performed extensive research on the cafe scene in Korea. They felt that Camel specifically excelled in branding, coffee, and hospitality — three aspects that they hoped would translate well in Los Angeles.

“There’s a level of consistency and a standard that Korean cafes hold ourselves to, whether that is how we weigh and ration out each of the drinks, or the special decor,” Kim says. “Every item is intentional and placed in a certain way.” To nail down the authenticity of the cafe’s look and feel, a team from Korea came overseas to help curate the Los Feliz shop’s design. Camel exudes a relaxed, rustic cool as a result, complete with a beige brick exterior, prolific writing on its wooden walls, and eclectic knick-knacks like animal manikins.

With lines sometimes exceeding two hours on weekends, it’s clear that Camel has found a home in Los Angeles, though its locations in Korea are less hyped and viewed by locals more as staple neighborhood coffee shops. While most of what is offered in Los Angeles’s Camel Coffee mirrors that of the chain’s menu in Korea, there are a few unique offerings, like the Camel Matcha — a matcha version of their signature drink — and a plant-based rendition of the beloved cream top that incorporates coconut oil and a vegan sweetener. The upstairs loft at the Los Feliz location provides a cozy, intimate space for visitors to hunker down with friends.

Further west, in Beverly Hills, Series A Coffee takes trendy drinks to the next level, often with a visual flair and unexpected toppings. Its menu boasts a dalgona latte made with honeycomb toffee, an iced Americano with pink tiramisu cream, and a black sesame latte with charcoal cold foam. The shop continues to test new, potential menu items, like a coffee drink with the Korean soft drink Milkis as the base, and even an iteration of the green onion latte that has gone viral in Asia. Though this experimental approach reflects the creativity of cafes in Korea, Series A owner Derek Rhie says his shop pushes beyond those boundaries to offer something more around the social aspect of drinking coffee.

“Koreans are very innovative with their desserts and coffee, but I’ve noticed that coffee shops in Korea often lack community,” said Rhie. “I grew up watching Friends, and I wanted to build something like that in LA, somewhere where people could come, meet people, and hang out.”

Cathy Park

Series A provides plenty of board games and a large television screen connected to a Nintendo Switch, where patrons are encouraged to play games, like Super Smash Bros., against one another. Rhie aims to cultivate a space at Series A where people can socialize for hours, in stark contrast to his sushi takeout spot Roll Call in Koreatown.

In their quest to bring a taste of Korean coffee culture to Los Angeles, cafes like Series A, Damo, Harucake, and Camel Coffee have become community hot spots — offering opportunities to partake in ceremonial tea traditions, more whimsical gameplay, and the social media ritual of sharing viral coffee experiences. These forces are driving the appeal of the cafes even further than their abilities to riff on drink trends from South Korea.

“I’m here at Series A seven days a week, and I love it,” said Rhie. “I want to create a space where people genuinely want to be here. I think that’s my calling.”

Matthew Kang