Clockwise from left, customers talk at Doksuri Dabang, which reopened in January. Dok Dabang’s outer sign in 2005. Lettering on Dok Dabang’s new door. A message board where people leave posts to stay connected.

Popular trends keep on changing in ways to make life more convenient, such as the arrival of smartphones and other “smart” devices that made many people able to get things done on-the-go in the past decade or so.

But, after some time chasing cutting-edge technology, people have started to realize that they’re nostalgic for the things they enjoyed before the arrival of time-saving “smart” gadgets and how many things are sacrificed for the sake of convenience.

Such sentiments are creating a new trend in the northern part of Seoul, as many well-known landmarks that either disappeared or whose existence were threatened due to financial problems are making comebacks. This trend is often found in the Shinchon and Hongdae areas of Mapo District, northwestern Seoul, where big-name franchise companies have started to occupy the streets in the past decade as more people visit for leisure.

Dokdabang, a shorter name for Doksuri Dabang, which means eagle cafe in Korean, returned to the heart of Shinchon eight years after serving its last coffee in 2005.

It reopened in January on the eighth floor of the same building where it used to be. Despite being less accessible than other stores on the first or the second floors, the building owner says there has been a steady flow of patrons four months since the business reopened.

“Some people come to reminisce about their college life back in the days and current students come to build memories of their own,” said Sohn Young-duek, owner of the dabang, a term widely used in the 70s and the 80s to indicate coffee shops.

“I’m also amazed at people actually coming up to the eighth floor to be in this cafe, and for that I’m very thankful.”

The original cafe of the same name opened in 1971. It was known as a gathering place for artists to discuss literature and music, including novelist Sung Suk-je of the coming-of-age tale, “First Love,” and poet Ki Hyung-do of the posthumously-published poem collection, “Black Leaf in My Mouth.” Also, many students and faculty members from nearby universities were regular customers of the shop in the 70s and the 80s.

The previous owner of the cafe, Kim Jung-hee, who is Sohn’s grandmother, decided to close down the place after franchise coffee stores began surging into the neighborhood.

“It would have been a financial decision back then,” said Sohn, agreeing that it would have been hard to cater to customers who were intrigued by big-name international franchises such as Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and many others that expanded in Korea in the mid-2000s, while trying to stay in business.