Around 1900, while coffee shops were in their infancy in Japan, around 1902, French-German Antoinette Sontag opened the Korean Peninsula's first Western-style hotel, the Sontag Hotel, in Jeongdong, Seoul.
She entered Seoul in 1885 accompanying Karl Ivanovich Bebel, the first Russian ambassador to Korea.
She was said to be Bebel's sister-in-law and served as a liaison between the Russian Legation and the Imperial Court.
She was multilingual, fluent in German, French, English, and Korean, and is said to have acted as an interpreter and intermediary between the Joseon royal family and Western powers.
As a liaison between the Russian Legation and the Imperial Court, Sontag is said to have been the person who steered Korea toward Russia and distanced it from China.
Gaining Gojong's trust, she was in charge of Western cuisine and interior decoration at the palace, and was responsible for introducing Western culture into royal life.
In 1895, Gojong recognized her achievements by bestowing land and a house (later the site of Yigyeong Ewha Girls' High School) in the area of Jeongdong in Jung-gu, Seoul.
Sontag renovated the building into a Western-style reception and accommodation facility for welcoming distinguished guests, marking the beginning of the "Sontag Guest House."
At the time, the Jeongdong area was home to many diplomatic missions from various countries, and the Sontag Hotel became a social gathering place for Western diplomats, missionaries, and Joseon's enlightened bureaucrats. Discussions of international affairs and politics were exchanged over coffee here. (Records of Winston Churchill and Hirobumi Ito staying there include guests such as himself.)
The 1896 "Agwanpacheon" incident, in which King Gojong and his son Sunjong temporarily fled to the Russian Legation to escape Japanese influence (called "Nogwanpacheon"), is sometimes said to have been partly due to Sontag's support and advice.
In 1902, the Korean Empire government used the king's personal funds (naipokin) to demolish the existing small Western-style building (with five guest rooms) and construct a new, two-story, modern Western-style building.
The management of the newly constructed building was entrusted to Sontag, and it came to be known as the "Sontag Hotel."
In terms of structure, it was a "de facto government-run hotel" built with a huge amount of royal funds.
Second floor: Guest rooms for state guests and dignitaries
First floor: Guest rooms for general foreigners, kitchen, dining room, and coffee shop.
Due to the Russo-Japanese War and subsequent changes in the international situation, Russian influence declined, and after the signing of the Eulsa Treaty (Second Japan-Korea Treaty) in 1905, the situation in Korea rapidly shifted to Japan's advantage.
Amid this changing political environment, Sontag reportedly handed over management of the hotel to a Frenchman and left Korea.
Sontag Hotel is considered a pioneer of Western-style hotels, Western restaurants, and in-hotel coffee shops in Korea.
This hotel is an essential part of Korean coffee culture. Sontag is said to have introduced Emperor Gojong to the taste of coffee, and the restaurant and tea room (dabang) within Sontag Hotel were iconic places to enjoy Western-style coffee.
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