Weekend74 Cafe, Hongcheon: A Red Benz by the Rails, a Sidecar and an A-Frame Wooden Roof

A Saturday trip to Hongcheon with friends. Outside the cafe we stopped at that morning, on a patch of grass beside a country road ringed by mountains, sat a red Benz convertible.

Where the front number plate should be, it says Weekend74 cafe.

A sidecar on the deck

The first thing you meet is a sidecar on a dark wooden deck: a small motorcycle with HONDA on its front rack and a yellow and black sidecar attached. The logo on the side looks like a 7 and a 4 joined together, the same as the Weekend74 logo on the roadside sign. Past the deck, stepping stones cross the lawn to outdoor tables under parasols.

A red convertible by the rails, and a white truck

A short walk on is the red Mercedes-Benz convertible. With its black soft top up, it sits on the grass between the road and the rails, weeds grown up around the wheels. As in the cover photo, a rail track on sleepers and gravel runs in front of it.

In the long grass next to it, a white Unimog (Mercedes-Benz's off-road truck). The cargo box carries the Weekend74 lettering and logo, and a small sign under the grille says 눈으로만 보세요, "please look with your eyes only".

Huge grounds and a pine-forest path

The real draw here is space. The grounds are huge, so you end up wandering for a good while. A dirt path runs through a grove of pines with twisting trunks, white parasols open beneath them. This is a cafe with its own forest path.

The cafe building is a triangular A-frame whose roof comes almost to the ground. A terrace with parasols and metal chairs sits in front of the grey metal roof, and at the front of the lawn there is a seating area dug into the ground around a round fire pit lined with stones. The sky was covered in grey cloud that day.

Inside: an A-frame timber ceiling and glass walls

Inside, a long table runs beside a thick timber column, and a planter packed with green plants fills its middle. At the back is a counter with a display case. And the menu was good, too.

The window side is glass from floor to ceiling. Round tables sit under cone-shaped pendant lights, and the wooden chairs have cushions in blue, red and green. Outside: the deck, the fire-pit area and the mountains behind.

The upper floor sits right under the sloping roof. The angled wooden ceiling has indirect lighting, and grey fabric chairs with rounded backs line up at white tables. Beyond the glass balustrade you look down on the ground floor and the lawn outside.

On the way out

The roadside sign reads Weekend74 cafe under the logo, then a line in Korean inviting you to "a pretty cafe with great scenery and atmosphere", and an arrow marked 카페 가는 길 (this way to the cafe). Tall pines and a mountain rise behind it.

On the way out: dark timber buildings with shingle roofs and a row of skylights, the grey A-frame rising behind them.

Lunch at Dongmakgol Sikdang: big nature, super fresh

From the cafe, lunch was at Dongmakgol Sikdang in Seo-myeon, Hongcheon's go-to for snail ssambap (rice and toppings wrapped in leaves). Deep in the countryside, and as fresh as it gets: piles of leafy greens, red stir-fried jjukkumi (webfoot octopus) and a pot of snail soybean paste. I would go back, 100%. The full write-up is in my post on Dongmakgol Sikdang.

Visitor info

📍 Weekend74 (위켄드74) · 1123 Namnoil-ro, Nam-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do (Namnoil-ri)

• 🕐 Hours: 10:30–19:30 (last order 19:00)
• ☎️ Phone: 010-3617-7477
• 🚗 Getting there: it sits on a country road; follow the arrow on the roadside sign.
• 🍽️ Same-day lunch: Dongmakgol Sikdang in Seo-myeon, about 16 km west of the cafe
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

Jayden's verdict

A cafe you only finish after a lap of the forest path. Weekend74 wins on sheer space.

• Highlight: the huge grounds and the pine-forest path. Wandering is half the fun.
• Who with: friends, on a trip to Hongcheon.
• Pair it with: snail ssambap at Dongmakgol Sikdang for lunch. Big nature, super fresh, and a 100% would-go-back.
• Tip: the cars, the sidecar and the forest path are spread out across the grounds, so give yourself time.