Hapjeong café for basil tomato & red grapefruit ades: Chimney Mansion

Hapjeong café Chimney Mansion

What kind of café is Chimney Mansion in Hapjeong?

Chimney Mansion is a café in Hapjeong that sells trdelník, the classic Czech street snack known in Korea as chimney bread (굴뚝빵). I had lunch in Hongdae, went to a barbershop, and decided to stop for a drink at a café before heading home. From Hongdae I passed through Seogyo-dong and ended up at Chimney Mansion in Hapjeong. There are other cafés in Korea that sell chimney bread, but Chimney Mansion is the closest one to my home.

Chimney Mansion's converted house: 1st floor and 2nd-floor terrace

Chimney Mansion is an old house in Hapjeong-dong that has been converted into a café.

On the 1st floor there is the ordering counter and the trdelník showcase, with a big table on one side.

There were people on the 1st floor, so I went up to the quieter, roomier 2nd floor. The 2nd floor has more tables and an outdoor terrace, which was lovely on a cool, windy day. I came after the lunch rush, so it was quiet and there were plenty of seats.

Chimney bread (trdelník) and drinks at Chimney Mansion

The chimney bread, trdelník, is sold from inside a showcase.

Lots of bakery cafés leave their bread out without a showcase, and sometimes flies land on it, but at Chimney Mansion the chimney bread is kept inside a showcase. For hygiene, that looks much better. There are classic options like cinnamon and salt bread, but also plenty of breads with unusual toppings, like Lemon Shining and Peanuts House.

Coffee machine broken? Tea and ades instead

On the day my friend and I visited, the espresso machine and the coffee steamer were broken, so no coffee could be ordered at Chimney Mansion. Sad. T_T The staff were working really hard to fix the machines. Luckily, Chimney Mansion has plenty of other drinks besides coffee, like tea and ades.

Does Chimney Mansion serve beer and wine?

Chimney Mansion sells alcohol too. The alcohol menu has two famous Czech beers, Kozel Dark and Pilsner Urquell, plus 5 kinds of wine. I bet wine or beer with trdelník would be really good.

Green Garden Horse ice cream chimney bread and two ades

My friend and I ordered the Green Garden Horse, said to be the most popular of the chimney bread ice creams at Chimney Mansion, along with a tomato basil ade and a red grapefruit ade.

2026 is the Year of the Horse, so the Green Garden Horse comes topped with a cute horse-shaped cookie. The horse cookie was a chocolate cookie, crisp and sweet. True to the name, the chimney bread ice cream has green syrup drizzled over the ice cream. Pistachios and chocolate are studded into the chimney bread, so it was nutty and delicious.

What does Chimney Mansion's basil tomato ade taste like?

This is the basil tomato ade I ordered. I think it's the first time I've had an ade at Chimney Mansion.

The unusual basil tomato ade, made with handmade cherry tomato syrup and basil leaves, tasted like a non-alcoholic version of a signature cocktail I once had at a cocktail bar. Basil and tomato in a drink may be hard to imagine, but the basil scent is lovely and the tomato syrup is much more refreshing and tangy than I expected, so it was delicious. I sincerely recommend the basil tomato ade. When I searched online, there were even recipes for basil tomato syrup (cheong)... was this a secret summer drink that only I didn't know about?! It's honestly perfect for summer, so if you visit Chimney Mansion in midsummer, please try the basil tomato ade.

Is Chimney Mansion's red grapefruit ade bitter?

Chimney Mansion's red grapefruit ade was made with a red grapefruit syrup (cheong) from sweet-tart red grapefruit, plus a piece of real red grapefruit. Grapefruit isn't a naturally occurring fruit; humans made it by crossing Jamaican orange with Southeast Asian pomelo. Grapefruit is usually made into juice or eaten with sparkling water poured over the flesh rather than eaten raw, probably because the pith is more bitter than in oranges or mandarins. Red grapefruit flesh is sweeter than yellow grapefruit, and maybe because of that, the red grapefruit ade wasn't very bitter and was on the sweet, tasty side.