JEONPO CAFÉ STREET
Jeonpo Café Street is a hotspot in Busan where the aroma of coffee and characterful shops mingle with old hardware stores.
Playground for the MZ Generation in Busan
The hottest playground for the MZ generation in Busan is not a sea or busy street but Jeonpo Café Street, a neighborhood alley in Seomyeon. It used to be a hardware store street where tools and hardware were sold, but now it has become popular as a café street with unique and unusual cafés and handcraft workshops. Jeonpo Café Street is a hotspot in Busan where the aroma of coffee and characterful shops mingle with old hardware stores. The street expanded when chic Jeollidan Street (Jeonpo Hardware Street) and hip Jeonpo Byway emerged nearby, becoming a must-visit for Busan travel.
©Busan Metropolitan City
Recommended by the New York Times
Jeonpo-dong in Seomyeon, Busan, has been a thriving hardware shopping district for a long time. In the 1960s and 1970s, more than 500 hardware stores formed a hardware street, but after the 1980s, many of those stores moved to the Sasang Industrial Complex and the street fell into decline.
©Busan Metropolitan City
©Busan Metropolitan City
It was around 2009 when a wind of change started to blow through this deteriorated back alley of downtown. These alleys where the once vacant shops had kept increasing were now filling with young people. They renovated old and shabby stores and opened small yet pretty cafés and restaurants and charming handcraft workshops. This unusual sight of an old shopping district with shops full of unique designs and charms was beginning to attract attention, and the street gained a new name, Jeonpo Café Street. In 2017, the New York Times of the United State recommended Jeonpo Café Street of Busan as one of the 52 Places to Go in 2017, which made it a world-famous tourist attraction.
Individuality and Sensibility that Appeal to the MZ Generation
When visitors enter the alley of Jeonpo Café Street, they will be greeted by one after another spaces with unique concepts that cannot be found anywhere else, from creative shop names to cafés filled with the aroma of coffee, vintage shops that appeal to artistic senses, black and white photo studios, glass art workshops and charmingly decorated character cafés. The charm of Jeonpo Café Street comes from its individuality. Each shop owner creates a café or handcraft workshop to suit his/her own taste rather than blend in with the surroundings, and there are iron works filled with the smell of paint and noise of grinding iron here and there in the alleys.
©Busan Metropolitan City
©Busan Metropolitan City
This artistic sensibility generated by vintage with the evidence of age and trendy characteristics can be found here on the MZ generation’s street. The unique atmosphere created by unusual items and spaces, such as hardware stores, cafés and gift shops, together and separately, is what make Jeonpo Café Street an attractive hotspot.
Jeonpo Byway Filled with Instagrammable Restaurants
As more and more young people visit, Jeonpo Café Street is expanding. The café street which originally went from the NORIMARU Youth Center to near Jeonpo Catholic Church was expanded to the Hardware Street near to Busanjin Fire Station and acquired the new name of Jeollidan Street (Jeonpo Hardware Street). Even Jeonpo Byway, which formed across from Jeonpo-daero, is packed with cafés big and small in every alley. Jeonpo Hardware Street, called Jeollidan Street, is where hardware stores that have been in the area for a long time and long-established stores mingled with trendy cafés, handcraft workshops, gift shops and pop-up stores, creating a hip culture alley.
Jeonpo Byway is a great place for a café and restaurant tour, as there are many hidden Instagrammable cafés in the alleys. Jeonpo Café Street is becoming a center of Busan’s local culture where the youth, culture and artistic sensitivities converge.
Address│Around 92 Dongcheon-ro, Busanjin-gu, Busan
Way to go│2-minute walk from Exit 2 of Jeonpo Station, Busan Subway Line 2
NEARBY TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
Café Dennis
The sliding doors of this café open to a vintage-style interior where sweet aromas of coffee and music playing from the turntable fill the air. Their signature coffee is the Australian-style cappuccino.
Raw & Sweet
This bakery café is known for the exotic atmosphere reminiscent of a vintage café in New York. Delicious pastries and cookies are freshly baked every morning, and their coffee can be characterized for the dark chocolaty flavor.
Dumbo Coffee & Bar
This hip coffee shop + brunch restaurant + bar is very popular among younger crowds. They roast their own coffee and serve a wide array of drinks and food menus. They also sell vinyl records and souvenirs.
Mouv
The black lettering on the white shutter has become a popular photo spot, and their signature menu is the Einspänner. Popular among MZers, Mouv has a modern and simple interior, and welcomes pets.
SWMSANG Studio
This is a jewelry workshop that also sells various souvenirs of Busan, such as t-shirts, and key chains. If you would like to make a one-of-a-kind souvenir, one-day silver ring making classes are offered.
TIP
Jeollidan-gil & Jeonpo Sait-gil
Jeollidan-gil is located between Seomyeon Station on Busan Subway Line 1 or 2, and Bujeon Station on Busan Subway Line 1. Jeonpo Sait-gil, which is also called “Seomyeon 4beon-ga,” is located by the even numbered exits of Jeonpo Station on Busan Subway Line 2.
©Busan Metropolitan City
©Korea Tourism Organization
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