Why Kim Turned His Back on a Nine-Figure Salary to Open a Country Café

Deep in the mountains of Hongcheon, Gangwon-do, amid the pastoral quiet of Aroma Herb Land, is a café named “Peace of Mind.” The café, which opened its doors on last year’s National Foundation Day, stands apart from the usual run of country coffee shops; stacked with thousands of books and records, the interior is always filled with the mouthwatering smell of baking bread. The personal history of the owners is no less unique: the café’s boss-cum-server Kim Jong-hun (57) was formerly president of Namyeong L&F, which manufactures the lingerie brand Vivien, and he now runs “Peace of Mind” alongside his wife Lee Hyoung-sook (52).

Kim’s life is a portrait of our society’s older generation, who devoted their youth to their jobs. Setting aside his dreams of studying Eastern philosophy and calligraphy, Kim joined the rank and file of salarymen and passed breathless days pulling repeated overtime stints and attending company dinners, while attending language school in the early mornings and evenings. He suffered from fainting spells, respiratory distress, and heart trouble, but never told his company or his family about them. His one consolation was to dream and plan for the “retirement in the country” that he would enjoy some day.

“When we got married, the dowry consisted of the contents of a single suitcase, but we didn’t forget to buy a classical guitar,” recalls Kim and his wife. In fact, the couple has admired a quiet retirement since the early 1980s, when Kim worked in Germany, and has long been preparing for it. After seeing a medieval castle, surrounded by a vineyard and equipped with an extensive library, get renovated into a restaurant, Lee began learning the art of baking from a German master baker, enduring through a severe tutelage. When the couple returned to Korea, her book-loving husband took precious time out of his busy schedule to scour the country for rare old volumes, from a secondhand book collector’s shop in Suwon to an antique store in Masan.

In 2001, Kim finally handed in his resignation as company president. But it wasn’t easy to relocate to the countryside after 28 years of life as an office worker. It was only after another year and nine months in a friend’s patent attorney’s office and the Hong Kong corporate headquarters of a toy company that he could fine tune his plans and put them into practice.

Over a period of a month or so, Kim and his wife scoped for a prospective site for their café, looking up picturesque spots around Gangwon-do and Gyeonggi-do on the internet and making personal excursions. One such trip was their visit to the Hongcheon Aroma Herb Land. They went with few expectations about the empty gardens, but once there, they fell in love with the colors of the sunset among the deep mountains and said, “This is it.” With a baking implements manufacturer and an interior designer among their longtime acquaintances, on top of a plan that has been many years in the making, the actual building of the café was a process of pure joy.

These days, the husband and wife spend their days in peace and long-awaited contentment.

“In the morning, we sweep the café’s front steps and buy vegetables at the market. We mix whole wheat and wine to bake new bread, and sow the flowerbeds with crape myrtle, four-o’clock, and cockscomb seeds. We’ve made friends with our neighbors, who come in to help out. We serve our guests with loving care as they sit and enjoy the quaintness of our café, then end the day by drinking herb tea flavored with a few drops of whiskey.”

The couple’s country life is not yet complete. They currently live in a rented apartment in Hongcheon town, but they have plans to build a fine house next to the café and become truly a part of nature.

The book of their simple life together, unfolding without room for guile or disguise, brings a smile to the reader’s lips, like a fairy tale whose happy ending is even sweeter for the bitter hardships that came before.

Ki-Tae Kwon kkt@donga.com