Choi Han-kyul (Gong Yoo) is the privileged, directionless grandson of a wealthy food conglomerate family. To escape his grandmother’s pressure to take over the business and enter an arranged marriage, he makes a bet: he’ll turn a run-down old coffee shop into a thriving café staffed entirely by handsome young men. The catch? He mistakes Eun-chan for a guy and hires her as one of his “prince” baristas.
Fans of Itaewon Class (underdog cafe setting), To My Star (identity and queer-adjacent tension), or Because This Is My First Life (realistic relationships over tropes). Final Verdict Grade: A Timeless, tender, and surprisingly brave. The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince remains a blueprint for how to do a gender-bender romance with soul, humor, and zero condescension. Twenty years later, its coffee still brews strong. The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince