Serving everything from churros to salt coffee and hot rum eggnog, newly minted cafe One Chu could induce some serious head-scratching from first-timers.

One sample of the deceptively all-over-the-place menu reveals a common thread well worth the venture.

One Chu, the culinary offspring of owners Lee Joezinho and Yoon Young, specializes in Spanish and American comfort food and drinks, both at their traditional and innovative, gut-warming best.

Fried-to-order churros emerge hot and crisp, tucked into a brown paper cone.

The slightly sweet fritters can be dunked into a more standard spiced chocolate dip, but the butterscotch caramel sauce takes the sweet to new heights, while the fresh, piquant jalapeno salsa pairs so well with those strands of fried dough that it practically demands a second round.

Rock salt coffee ― where salt is incorporated into a cool cream topping the drink rather than directly added into the brew itself ― acts as the perfect foil to the sweet dips.

For a sugar-on-sugar experience, the hot chocolate is a good go-to option. Thick, but not to the point where it feels like pudding, a combination of milk and dark cacao gives the drink its caramel-like, decadent richness. 

Sending a nod to Christmas, One Chu also serves hot spiced rum eggnog topped with nutmeg.

To top it off, the establishment dishes out a beer set complete with garlic churros.

Clearly, this is no run-of-the-mill cafe, and while giving creative freedom full rein in the kitchen can sometimes lead to disaster, at One Chu, it works.

In executive chef Lee Joezinho’s opinion, one of the reasons why the resulting grub and drinks taste so good is because they are made from scratch.

“A fresh batter is made for the churros every morning and then one in the afternoon depending on how much goes out,” said Lee.

That kind of painstaking care matters, of course, but when it comes to innovation, that requires something more, and it seems that another reason behind the fun, adventurous and toothsome vibe of One Chu stems from Lee himself.

At first glance, Lee, decked out in a cap that reads “Sorry I’m Fresh,” does not come across like a typical chef.

Rather than don standard chef whites, Lee dresses himself and his crew in industrial-looking grey button-downs from an indie hip-hop label. From behind the counter, Lee radiates a laidback attitude and style that does not make it hard to believe that before he became a chef, he was a b-boy and DJ.

After holding down various jobs, Lee turned to cooking as a profession.

“I’ve always loved food,” Lee said.

As for the churros, co-owner Yoon Young pushed for the tasty, Spanish treats because Koreans were familiar with them and he thought customers would enjoy the fried donut-like appeal of those thin fritters.

One thing is for certain, with the wide array of dipping sauces available, including flavors like lemon curd and sriracha mayo, customers will be hard-pressed to tire of One Chu’s churros.

● One Chu; 1F, 551-1 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 135-890; (02) 516-3202; open noon to 11 p.m. daily, closed Mondays; churros cost 3,000 won to 4,000 won; drinks range from 4,000 won to 8,000 won per glass

By Jean Oh (oh_jean@heraldcorp.com)