Letters & Lattes

I’ve always been a fan of hand-writing letters to friends and family members. Something about making time to physically put together a letter has always seemed lovely and thoughtful to me, especially nowadays, when there are many faster and more efficient alternatives. 

Given my affinity for snail mail, I knew I had to visit The Space Filled With You (널담은공간 in Korean) after seeing a Tiktok about it. This cafe’s unique concept allows visitors to write a letter to themselves. The next year (on a date of the customer’s choosing), The Space Filled With You will mail the customer their letter! 

From the SK Global dorm, it took around 35 minutes (by bus) to get to the café. It is located near Itaewon, with plenty of other cute businesses to check out nearby (note: the picturesque Butter Book is only five or so minutes away and is now on my list to visit soon; Monk’s Deli is also a great all-vegan deli/café in the area). My friend and I went on a Wednesday in the early afternoon and it was not overly crowded. The café appears to be popular on social media, so I would advise going early in the day or on a weekday. 

Once we got to the café, we ordered lattés, chocolate chip cookies, and letter writing kits. The kit–which includes an envelope, two postcards, stickers, wax for a wax seal, and postage– is 4,000 won. For international shipping, we each paid an additional 1,000 won. We got to choose our specific postcards, wax colors, and stickers. 

After receiving our food and drinks, we headed to the seating area upstairs. We also briefly visited the rooftop, which had great views of Namsan Tower. If the weather is nice and there are seats available, I would recommend using this space to write your letter and enjoy your food. 
Unfortunately, it happened to be intermittently raining on the day we visited, so we headed back inside after snapping a few pictures. 

The cookies and lattes were very tasty and served as a great mid-afternoon pick-me-up. After savoring them and brainstorming some letter ideas, we began writing! We were both surprised by how much we enjoyed the process. It allowed us both to reflect on where we saw ourselves in a year– a big question considering we are seniors and would be entering post-grad life in 2022! 

We spent about 15 minutes writing the letters before we headed back downstairs to create our wax seals. The sealing process was fun, simple, and took us only about three minutes. Next, we each put our letters in the slots in the wall allocated for the date we wanted the café to mail them out. 

Overall, we really enjoyed the cafe and thought the visit was a great way to spend the afternoon. If you’re looking for a unique activity, I would highly recommend it! 

Cafe Details: 
The Space Filled With You (널담은공간) 
https://store.naver.com/restaurants/detail?id=1902632584