Wit, whimsy and a refusal to take itself too seriously define this small Australian-style cafe/restaurant in the heart of Seoul.
Caravan, opened by expatriates Jessica Chung and Adam Kane in February, brings all-day casual dining with an antipodean flavour to the South Korean capital through a menu spanning breakfast, dinner and everything in between.
Nestled in Mapo - a gu, or district, renowned for its vibrant indie arts and music scene - the petite 90-square-metre venue serves up an eclectic menu ranging from chicken congee and Korean beef tenderloin to lamingtons and South Australian cabernet sauvignon.
After discussing the business concept with a number of South Korean interior design firms, Chung and Kane engaged David Flack, founder of Melbourne's Flack Studio, to transform the site as they felt he intuitively understood the mood they wanted to create.
In their original brief, Chung and Kane told Flack they wanted a space that evoked their memories of growing up in Australia. For Chung, who was born in South Korea but moved to Australia as a child, this meant family holidays travelling the east coast with a caravan; for Adam, weekend outings to Greek and Italian cafes in the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and Northcote.
The couple also played Flack three songs - Steely Dan's Do It Again, Roxy Music's Love is The Drug, and Steve Miller Band's Fly like an Eagle - that embodied the ambience they wanted. "The original brief was about feelings and memories," says Flack. "They discussed their childhood memories about what Australia meant to them.
"It was very much about the positive effects of immigration on the local design and food scene, from the classic milk bars to the the Italian and Greek cafes and providores."
Flack, who is now working with Chung and Kane on a second Caravan cafe in Seoul, responded with an exuberant palette of British racing green, pink and crimson, with brass and marble accents.
Scape dining chairs by Grant Featherston - an Australian classic recently revived by local furniture producer Grazia and Co - in custom cherry red are mixed with a built-in sofa in tan leather and an ottoman upholstered in blush-coloured velvet.
At the front of the cafe, a feature wall in British racing green is offset against peach tiles from San Francisco-based Heath Ceramics and a red marble benchtop, while the colour of the Featherston chairs is picked up again in wooden venetians.
In a nod to the Aussie caravan that gives the cafe its name, the 35-seat venue is packed with details.
Perhaps the most eye-catching features are the quirky Tahiti and Milano lamps, produced in the 1980s by the Memphis Group, a collection of Milanese designers founded by Italian designer Ettore Sottsass.
Walls are decorated with the works of Australian artists Sean Bailey of Daine Singer Gallery and Mathew Allen of Sullivan + Strumpf.
