About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Twosome Place. 404 King Street, Alexandria.
A South Korean dessert giant with over 1,750 locations in its home country is opening stateside on Saturday, October 17, and it’s chosen Old Town Alexandria to host its first US branch. Twosome Place specializes in two things—coffee and cake—but the store will also feature a new flavored drinks and other Korean specialties.
Twosome’s cakes are imported from Korea, according to head of US operations Hyunji Kim, while toppings are applied stateside. Most are available by the slice as well as in their entirety, including their popular strawberry chocolate cream cake with layers of cream shuffled between tender sponge and crunchy chocolate pearls. It’s the only trademarked cake in Korea, with over 3 million sold annually.
Twosome’s icebox cake, Hyunji says, is also a crowd favorite in Korea, having been originally inspired by recipes from the American midwest. Despite featuring chocolate cookies, whipped cream, and mascarpone, the cake tastes light, almost as if it could be eaten for breakfast. In fact, that’s how it’s sometimes enjoyed overseas: “Just like cereal, some people pour milk on the icebox, and eat it with a spoon,” notes Twosome’s chief operating officer Shin Kim, who flew in from Seoul for the opening. “US cakes are more butter-rich, whereas our cakes [use] more fresh cream.”
Exclusive to the Alexandria location is a black sesame cake, which uses chocolate sponge and squishy rice cakes to create some textural variety. Other Twosome offerings include a mango cake, a seasonal pumpkin tart, and an injeolmi cake flavored with rice and roasted soybean powder. Shin adds that Twosome is considering selling bingsu, a Korean shaved ice dessert, during the summer months.
Beyond cakes, the store is also offering pastries from Union Market bakery Pluma, as well as savory items including a “Bulgogi Bibimbowl” and “K-Toast,” which features bulgogi, fried egg, vegetables, and chipotle mayo tucked between two thick slices of brioche.
While Twosome sells three distinct coffee blends in Korea, they’ve created just one for Alexandria, in collaboration with the Annapolis–based Ceremony Coffee Roasters. But you’ll also find a variety of specialty drinks, such as a yuzu espresso tonic and an iced apple cinnamon tea. There’s also the “Dalgona Cream Top,” a whipped coffee inspired by the traditional candy made famous by the Korean drama Squid Game.
The space is comfortable and elegant, featuring cherry wood benches and traditional Korean light fixtures. “We didn’t want it to look like Korea Korea,” says Shin. “We wanted to provide very subtle Korean aesthetics.”
With stylish merch on the shelves and a website flaunting collaborations with Porsche and Johnnie Walker, it’s perhaps little surprise that Twosome is backed by private equity—specifically, the DC-based Carlyle Group. The brand was created by another large conglomerate, CJ Foodville. “It was already big before Carlyle acquired the business,” Shin says.
Old Town might not seem like an obvious location for the company’s first US branch, but Shin says the chain was drawn to the area because of its demographics. “Alexandria has very sophisticated consumers with very strong spending power, especially when it comes to dining and food,” he says. It’s also a central base for any possible expansion. “From a geographic perspective, it’s in a good location, where we can expand north and south as we go,” Shin says.
