South Korean café giant chooses Alexandria for its first U.S. store and a wider expansion
Twosome Place will open its first American café on King Street in mid-October. The company is using Northern Virginia as the starting point for a company-operated expansion that could reach 15 U.S. stores in its initial phase.
Twosome Place, one of South Korea’s largest coffee-and-dessert chains, has officially selected Old Town Alexandria for its first U.S. café and the starting point of a wider American expansion.
The company said the approximately 2,604-square-foot café at 404 King Street will open in mid-October with 78 indoor and outdoor seats. It will occupy ground-floor space at The Alexandrian hotel, placing the international brand in one of Northern Virginia’s busiest dining and visitor districts.
The opening is considerably larger than a single coffee-shop announcement. Twosome Place operates roughly 1,750 locations in South Korea, and company executives say Alexandria will lead a company-owned rollout across the Washington region before the brand moves into other major American cities.
The company has not announced an exact opening date. Details of its grand-opening events are expected in the coming weeks.
Virginia won a two-year location search
Twosome Place began preparing for its U.S. expansion about two years ago and considered Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta and New York before choosing Alexandria, company executives said during a September 3 briefing in Seoul.
The selection was deliberate. Company officials described Alexandria as an affluent, sophisticated market with four distinct seasons, a strong mix of residential, dining and leisure activity, and a location that would make additional Washington-area growth practical. The company also wanted to test the brand with a broad local customer base rather than depend primarily on Korean American or Asian American consumers.
That makes Old Town a proving ground for whether Twosome Place’s Korean coffee-and-cake model can compete in the mainstream U.S. café market.
After establishing itself in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, the company plans to pursue other major U.S. cities. Yonhap News Agency reported that Twosome Place intends to become a major American brand and will use its Washington-region stores as the first stage of that strategy.
Company executives provided additional detail to Korean business media, saying the initial stores will be directly operated rather than franchised. Twosome Place is considering as many as 15 locations in the shorter term, although final decisions will depend on the performance of the stores as they open. Franchising could be considered later, after the company-operated locations become established and profitable, according to The Asia Business Daily.
The Alexandria space is not yet cleared to open. City records show the tenant build-out permit was issued June 23 and a fire suppression system was signed off September 4, but the commercial certificate of occupancy, applied for August 18, was still listed as in progress this week.
A second Northern Virginia location is already taking shape
Virginia business records also point to a second planned location in Ballston.
The Alexandria Brief reported that Twosome Ballston LLC lists 4300 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington as its principal office. The address is associated with a Compass Coffee location that the Washington-based chain sought to surrender during bankruptcy proceedings. Compass filed for Chapter 11 in Washington on January 6 and moved the same day to reject ten leases, 4300 Wilson Boulevard among them. The court authorized the rejections in an order entered January 29.
State records show four Virginia registrations tied to the brand, all of them Delaware companies: Twosome Place USA Inc. and Twosome Cafe Holdings LLC, both registered in Virginia in July 2025 and both giving an Arlington address, and the two store companies, Twosome Old Town LLC and Twosome Ballston LLC. Twosome Place USA lists two officers, both at a Seoul address. Virginia does not require limited liability companies to disclose their members, so the filings do not by themselves establish who owns the two store companies.
Twosome Place has not publicly announced an opening date for Ballston or confirmed that a lease for the former Compass space has been completed.
The Ballston site would put Twosome Place a block from a Tous les Jours, the CJ Foodville bakery café at 4238 Wilson Boulevard, and in a corridor where the Korean bakery-café chains that reached Virginia first are already established.
The American menu will be more than coffee and cake
Twosome Place was founded in Seoul in 2002 and built its brand around pairing specialty coffee with elaborate cakes and desserts. Its best-known offerings include Strawberry Chocolate Fresh Cream Cake and Ice Box Cake, a layered chocolate-cookie and mascarpone cream dessert sold by the slice or as a whole cake.
The Alexandria café will adapt that model for American customers while making Korean flavors a visible part of the menu.
Announced beverages include Dalgona Cream Top, Black Sesame Latte, Misugaru Frappe and Korean Apple Cinnamon Tea. The all-day savory menu is expected to include K-Toast with bulgogi and egg, a K-Chicken Panini and a Bibimbowl.
Company executives said the U.S. menu was developed after extended product testing and work to source ingredients such as fruit and fresh cream from American suppliers. They also expect the American stores to place greater emphasis on breakfast and all-day café traffic than the company’s South Korean locations, where much of its business occurs after lunch.
The strategy is to sell a broader café experience, not simply introduce a handful of Korean desserts. Twosome Place believes its lighter fresh-cream and mousse-based cakes, coffee pairings and Korean-influenced meals can distinguish it in a U.S. market crowded with conventional coffee chains and bakery cafés.
No Virginia ABC license or pending application is recorded for Twosome Place or for 404 King Street, consistent with a café that does not intend to serve alcohol.
Backed by a Washington investment firm
Twosome Place’s American push is backed by The Carlyle Group, the Washington-based global investment firm.
Carlyle announced its acquisition of Twosome Place in November 2021, when the chain operated more than 1,400 stores. At the time, Carlyle said it planned to use its consumer and retail experience, international network and resources to strengthen the brand, improve its store portfolio and expand its product and marketing capabilities.
The chain has added more than 300 South Korean locations since then. Its U.S. launch now places a Carlyle-owned South Korean hospitality brand less than 10 miles from the investment firm’s Washington headquarters.
For Alexandria and Virginia, the significance is straightforward: a large international restaurant company evaluated several of the country’s most prominent markets and chose Old Town as its American entry point. The King Street café is the first test, but Twosome Place’s plans extend well beyond a single storefront.