Lee Hyori warns against cafe startups, citing husband's Jeju cafe

Singer Lee Hyori said on the JTBC entertainment programme “연애전쟁”, broadcast on 5 October, that her husband Lee Sang-soon's cafe drew queues of hundreds of metres but still did not earn much, and warned that cafes are dangerous. The episode featured a couple who had stopped working; the woman said she wanted to open a cafe, prompting the advice from Lee Hyori and rapper Hanhae. [ 1 , 3 ]

Lee Sang-soon opened a cafe in Jeju in 2022, when public interest in the couple's life on the island was high and it was known that he brewed the coffee himself. Long queues formed and the cafe switched to a reservation system because more visitors came than expected, according to Maeil Business and Hankook Ilbo. The three fullest reports say the cafe stopped operating in May 2024, about two years after opening. Seoul Economic Daily reported that the closure was due not to business difficulties but to the expiry of the lease, quoting Lee Sang-soon as saying “the contract period ended”. [ 1 , 3 , 6 ]

“My husband ran a cafe too. There were queues of hundreds of metres and it was chaotic, but even so he did not earn much,” Lee Hyori said, according to Maeil Business, Hankook Ilbo and Seoul Economic Daily. “Cafes are very dangerous,” she said. Hanhae said he had run a cafe selling yogurt and coffee in Sangam-dong, Seoul, about three to four years ago. “I am experienced. I have failed at a cafe,” he said, adding that opening one is romantic but “really hell” once rent is counted. He said six months were trading and the remaining 18 months were spent holding on, and told viewers never to open a cafe. [ 1 , 3 , 6 ]

Reports differed on the scale of Hanhae's losses. Maeil Business and Seoul Economic Daily said he put the loss at 150 million to 200 million won, while Hankook Ilbo reported a loss of about 150 million won. Seoul Economic Daily also quoted him saying that while he sold a cup of coffee for 2,000 won, a franchise outlet next door sold one for 900 won, making competition impossible, and that fixed costs such as rent were the main cause of failure. [ 1 , 3 , 6 ]

Seoul Economic Daily additionally reported figures from the Seoul Metropolitan Government's commercial district analysis service showing 27,351 coffee and beverage shops in Seoul in the second quarter, 492 fewer than the 27,843 recorded a year earlier. In the same quarter 1,040 such shops opened and 992 closed, it said. The outlet reported that industry voices point to rising costs for rent, labour, beans and milk along with outlet expansion by low-price coffee franchises, and that experts advise weighing rent, labour, ingredient costs, average spend and turnover before starting a business rather than relying on footfall or publicity. [ 6 ]