Day 43: Revisiting Minhyuk's Restaurant, Infinite Tree Forest, The Red Carpet Hair Salon and Woohyun's Restaurant and Trying Cube Studio Cafe and Coffee Cojjee

On Friday, August 1st, I decided to take my friend to some of my most memorable places in Seoul.

CNBlue Minhyuk's Restaurant
We started our day at CNBlue Minhyuk's restaurant, arriving there at around 11:30AM. We were there for about three hours, and in that entire time, only one adult fangirl from China came, as well as some older men and women stepping in and out. Sadly Minhyuk's father was working on bookkeeping, or maintaining materials outside, so we didn't see him much.

Here is our order form. This time we ordered what this restaurant is known for, eel. There are two eel dishes, the market price one and the 10,000₩ one. We decided to try the latter, 꼼장어, as well as baby octopus, 쭈꾸미. The eel was so delicious, because they marinated it perfectly and the meat of eel is dense like regular meat, yet still has that seafood taste. I definitely recommend this!

Here is our lovely table! The top left is the eel and directly underneath is the baby octopus.

We definitely took our time eating for three hours, and the same ahjumma from last time seemed kind of agitated. But afterwards, we eventually paid Minhyuk's father but then he went outside and helped the delivery men to put cartons and other inventory away. We awkwardly stood in the restaurant, in hopes of getting a photo with him. We asked to take pictures eventually, and my back was towards him but my friend saw that he started fixing his hair with the palm of his hand! But then he went back outside, and eventually came back in and my friend saw he was combing his hair with an actual comb! And then he got a phone call, and his ringtone was Minhyuk's "Star" (which I heard the first time I was in the restaurant but thought it was background music, though the only background noise was the news on TV playing), and he let the phone ring for quite some time, to let us enjoy the song (and make us guess who's on the other end!). Eventually he said 요보세요 and had a quick talk. Immediately after, his phone plays CNBlue's "I'm a Loner"! I'm still wondering who called him...finally my friend and I got a group photo with him, and we had the ahjumma use my iPhone to take photos. But she didn't understand how to use it and took many random shots.

Also at the pay counter they had one business card available, but I felt wrong to take it. So here's a photo of it, and of course with Minhyuk on the front^^ (Sometimes it seems like this restaurant is exploiting Minhyuk just a little too much...).

Infinite Tree Forest
Next we stopped by Infinite's Tree Forest, since it's close to Minhyuk's restaurant by subway. This time, we noticed a bag of gifts were tied to Sunggyu's tree, and Dongwoo's and Sungjong's trees had little toothpick tags with their names beside them. I wanted to come back here because I noticed Woohyun's twitter photo had one of Infinite at the Tree Forest placard, with Myungsoo in his black hat touching the sign! So I had to go back and reenact the photo and touch the sign in the same spot Myungsoo touched.

Cube Studio Cafe
Next we visited Cube Entertainment's Cube Studio Cafe, which is a few yards down the block from its headquarters. Today, instead of Beast's "Good Luck," the theme changed to Hyuna's new comeback, so the exterior had her album cover of which I felt too awkward taking a picture. We came at around 7PM, and there were several small groups of fangirls enjoying drinks and some doing homework (I can't imagine coming here everyday, doing homework and waiting for idols). We ordered yuza yogurt frappe, which was thick, subtly flavorful, and delicious! The drinks come with a cup holder of Cube's latest comeback.

We also ordered honey toast, which was also tasty and made to perfection (though it did take awhile to make...).

Here's a photo of the cup holder and the buzzer with Beast's promotion on it. The cafe also has autographed albums on display, the artists' autographs and hand prints molded on the ground, and exclusive merchandise for sale, like pillows (all sold out), ear caps, Beast books, clear files, light sticks, tumblers, postcards, and more. There are also photos of the artists' promotions framed on the wall, as well as a TV playing each artist's latest music video, and the speakers playing each artist's latest song, but not together so it was very out of sync. Soon, out on the street walking from Cube's headquarters direction, down our block and past this cafe, we saw a young guy with a blond top layer of hair walking with a body guard and surrounded by an entourage of fangirls, and several fangirls running behind trying to catch up. I got a look at his back for just a few seconds. My friend looked up who has that hairstyle currently, and we determined it was JB of Got7 (though honestly I'm not sure). And then Infinite just released the concert merchandise and I fangirled much harder than seeing that celebrity.

Kang Ho The Red Carpet Hair Salon and Coffee Cojjee

We went back to the hair salon so I could appreciate the building once more, and this time there were about 10 or so fangirls waiting on the street. The hair salon was already closed, so I wasn't sure who they could possibly be waiting for, though a classy Rolls Royce was parked in the salon/cafe front, along with an idol-looking black luxury van. Then we looked into JYJ's Coffee Cojjee and noticed that it was dark inside, despite their hours being 10AM to 11PM. We saw a woman enter inside anyways, and hesitantly followed. We saw a signed poster of the musical Dracula, and a beautiful display case of autographed albums, and the woman doing something with the display. We asked her about the cafe, and she said that it's under renovation and it should be opened sometime next month, in a few weeks, but couldn't give me an exact date. She told me to just come back and see. I then asked if I could take photos of the albums, and she said I could, but quickly.

I didn't have time to appreciate anything, but I made sure to take clear pictures, especially of the mini Infinite collection!

Capioca and Box+
Afterwards, my friend wanted to take me to Capioca, a bubble tea place near SM that many idols enjoy and have left autographs on the walls. Also within a block is supposedly a clothing store called Box+ where an Infinite music video was filmed, but I have my doubts as I've only read about this from one site and can't identify which music video it could have possibly been. We spent about two hours walking around, taking the bus, trying to take the taxi, just looking for these two places, but it was nearly impossible, and we were getting delusional. Eventually we gave up, but will have to try again!

Woohyun's Restaurant
As Boohyun told me to "please come back again," I just had to! We were there from 11PM to 12:15AM, and sadly Boohyun wasn't there. The same woman worker (who opened the door for us the first time and who was sitting at the counter for so long), a man who seemed like her husband, and a young guy with a waist apron with the Infinite OTT symbol were working. There was a group of about five fangirls in the back corner by the life size Woohyun poster, and they seemed like regulars as one girl entered, said hi to the woman respectfully (Woohyun's mom?), and sat down. It was only that table, and us (we sat at a table this time), and later an older couple next to us. The man working was so friendly, as he kept grilling and cutting the meat for us. The man at the table next to us asked why he was cooking everything completely for us while they had to cook for themselves. The worker said it was because we are foreigners! Then he asked where we're from, and my friend said Mexico while I said the US. He was so surprised that she was from Mexico, sharing to the older couple that she was from there. Both men and my friend had a little conversation about Mexico's soccer team, and then the couple started asking if we're students. My friend received so much attention this time; it really does show that international fans do mean something to them! It's definitely a feeling of appreciation that I am grateful to receive. Later the woman helped us grill too, but we didn't talk to her much. I took another round of photos to replace my blurry photos, brought my own post-it and pen to write Woohyun a note, and I hope he'll read it!

I keep forgetting to mention about the food itself, and not just the experience. We ordered the cow neck meat again, 목소금구이, along with the recommended cow intestine, 소막창. I don't know if it's because we had these cooked by professionals, or because of the cut or what, but these two dishes were so delicious! I can't get over how tasty the intestine was. It's definitely different from the Chinese kind I'm used to; this one still had the consistency of meat, and though there was a lot of fat attached, it didn't taste heavy or unhealthily gross like fat on 삼겹살. I definitely recommend these two dishes!