A Korean Café Brought the Cake Case to King Street

People were waiting on King Street before Twosome Place opened at 7 a.m. on October 17. The company told Korean papers the line held until closing at 8, and that some guests had come from New York and Baltimore. The café at 404 King Street is about 2,600 square feet, with 78 seats if you count the terrace. It is the first American shop for a Seoul brand that has spent two decades treating coffee and cake as one order.

In Korea the chain is A Twosome Place. It opened in Sinchon in 2002 and now has more than 1,750 cafés. Carlyle, the private equity firm based in Washington, bought it in 2021. The rooms put a cake case next to the espresso machine, and people order both. That habit is ordinary in Seoul. It is newer on King Street.

The house cake is strawberry chocolate cream: sponge, cream, chocolate pearls, fresh strawberries on top. Twosome’s September press release calls it the only trademark-registered cake in Korea and puts yearly sales above three million. The icebox cake sells even harder there, more than six million a year, chocolate cookies layered with whipped cream and mascarpone. Hyunji Kim, who runs the U.S. operation, told Washingtonian the cakes fly in from Korea and the toppings get finished in Alexandria. You can buy a whole cake without calling ahead. For American parties, the strawberry chocolate comes in larger sizes the Korean shops do not sell.

Shin Kim, the chief operating officer, flew in from Seoul for the opening. American cakes lean on butter, he told Washingtonian; Twosome’s lean on fresh cream. In Korea, he said, some people pour milk over the icebox cake and eat it with a spoon, the way you would cereal. Alexandria also gets a black sesame cake with chocolate sponge and chewy rice cake that is not on the Korean menu, plus an injeolmi cake rolled with roasted soybean powder. Pastries come from Pluma at Union Market. The coffee blend is from Ceremony Coffee Roasters in Annapolis.

Beside the espresso drinks sit a few Korean cups made for this market: a dalgona cream top, a black sesame latte, a misugaru frappe made with roasted grain powder, and an apple cinnamon tea built like sujeonggwa, the Korean cinnamon punch. For breakfast and lunch the board adds a brioche K-toast with bulgogi and egg, a Seoul spicy chicken panini, and a bulgogi bibimbap bowl. About eighty items in all. On day one, the company said the spoonable icebox and strawberry chocolate cakes moved fastest, with the black sesame latte and the dalgona drink leading the cups.

The team spent about two years looking at Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, and Atlanta before landing on Old Town, Seoul Economic Daily reported, for the income on King Street and the mix of diners and tourists. Shin told Washingtonian the same spot makes it easier to grow north or south from one shop. At the Seoul briefing, the company put prices about 10 to 20 percent above Korea, and drinks above Starbucks here. Cherry wood benches and Korean light fixtures are in the room. “We didn’t want it to look like Korea Korea,” Shin said. “We wanted to provide very subtle Korean aesthetics.”

Moon Young-joo, the CEO, told reporters in Seoul in September that the United States is the base for a longer overseas push. A local subsidiary will run the early shops. After Alexandria, the company wants more than ten cafés across Washington, Maryland, and Virginia, and it is reviewing a number as high as fifteen. New York and New Jersey come after that region is set. Franchising can wait. Other countries are on the calendar for 2028. The September U.S. release also said two more American locations would open soon, without naming them. Virginia filings already list a Twosome Ballston company at an Arlington address. The company has not announced that room.