Why Is This Seoul Toast Shop Still Called ‘Grandma’s Toast’?

Walk through Changdong Market in northern Seoul, and you might come across a small toast shop.

It is not a place that looks particularly unusual at first.

There is a griddle, some bread, eggs, vegetables, and a woman standing behind the counter, making toast for customers.

But look at the name.

It is still called “Grandma’s Toast.”

There is just one problem with that name.

Grandma is no longer there.

So why is this Seoul toast shop still called Grandma’s Toast?

It Started With a Grandmother

The story begins with the late Park Yi-soon, who ran the toast shop in Changdong.

In 2019, KBS introduced her and her Vietnamese daughter-in-law, Jung Soo-yeon, who was helping her make toast. The two women stood together behind the griddle, preparing the kind of inexpensive, filling toast that has long been part of everyday life in Seoul.

The toast was simple.

Bread was toasted on the griddle. An egg mixture filled with vegetables was cooked alongside it. The vegetables made the egg filling thick and generous, and everything was put together while it was still hot.

It was not fancy food.

It was the kind of food you could pick up on your way somewhere.

A quick breakfast before work.

Something to eat before school.

A small meal while passing through the market.

And for some customers, it became part of their routine.

Then Grandma Was Gone

Eventually, Park Yi-soon passed away.

The shop could have disappeared with her.

Instead, her daughter-in-law continued it.

Jung Soo-yeon, who had come to Korea from Vietnam, kept making the toast she had learned from her mother-in-law.

This is an important part of the story.

She did not simply inherit the shop.

She continued the recipe.

The same basic way of making the toast remained: the bread, the egg, the vegetables, and the cooking on the hot griddle.

In 2024, KBS's My Neighbor, Charles featured Jung Soo-yeon as a Vietnamese daughter-in-law carrying on her Korean mother-in-law's toast business.

And in September 2026, EBS's Extreme Job returned to the shop, showing the work that goes into making hundreds of pieces of toast in a day.

The person behind the griddle had changed.

The toast had not.

The Recipe Stayed the Same

There is something interesting about passing down a recipe.

You can write down the ingredients.

You can write down the measurements.

But that does not necessarily preserve the taste.

Someone still has to stand at the griddle.

They have to know how the egg should look.

How much vegetable belongs in it.

How long the bread should stay on the heat.

And when everything is ready to be put together.

Those little decisions are part of the recipe, too.

Jung Soo-yeon learned those things from her mother-in-law.

And she is still doing them.

That may be one reason the name “Grandma’s Toast” has remained.

The grandmother is gone, but the way she made the toast is still there.

Then There Is the Coffee

There is another small detail that makes the shop's story even more interesting.

The toast comes from the Korean mother-in-law.

The coffee has a connection to Vietnam.

Jung Soo-yeon serves coffee brought from Vietnam, bringing something from her own background into the shop she inherited from her Korean mother-in-law.

It is not presented as some grand cultural project.

It is simply part of the shop.

Korean toast on one side.

Vietnamese coffee on the other.

Both have become part of the same little place in Changdong Market.

And perhaps that is more interesting than calling it a “cultural exchange.”

It is just what happened in one family's life.

Why Does Seoul Have So Much Toast?

Toast may seem like an odd subject for a story about Seoul.

There are much more famous Korean foods.

But toast has something those foods do not always have.

It is ordinary.

You can find Korean-style toast around subway stations, markets, school areas, and busy streets.

It is usually inexpensive and quick to eat.

For someone rushing to work, it can be breakfast.

For a student, it can be a quick meal.

For someone shopping at a market, it can simply be something to eat before heading home.

That is why toast can become part of people's memories without them necessarily thinking of it as anything special.

Years later, they may remember the little shop near a subway station.

Or the toast they bought on the way to school.

Or the smell of butter and eggs cooking on a griddle.

The food itself is simple.

The memories attached to it can last much longer.

Maybe That Is What “Grandma’s Toast” Means

So why is this Seoul toast shop still called “Grandma’s Toast”?

The obvious answer is that it was Grandma's shop.

But there is more to it than that.

Her recipe is still being made.

The method she taught her daughter-in-law is still being followed.

Customers who remember the old shop can still come back and find something familiar.

And the woman behind the griddle has added her own story to the place.

She came to Korea from Vietnam.

She learned how to make toast from her Korean mother-in-law.

She continued making it after her mother-in-law was gone.

And she brought coffee from Vietnam into the same little shop.

The name stayed the same.

The person changed.

The city around the shop changed, too.

But the toast is still being made.

Perhaps that is why “Grandma’s Toast” still feels like the right name.

It is no longer just the name of a woman who once stood behind a griddle.

It is the name of a recipe that someone decided not to let disappear.

And in a city that changes as quickly as Seoul, sometimes that is enough reason to keep a small shop exactly where it is.