omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

It was nothing more than a little door, leading to a little garden, in front of a little old house in the residential suburbs of Omotesando. Seasonal flowers hung by the entrance, and the trees in the gardenย changed color with Tokyo’sย seasons.

Back then, some five years ago, you had to go looking forย it. It was like treasure hunting; you had to get a little lost.

This was Omotesando Koffee.

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

Yourย first time was always surreal. After you ducked under the doorway and looked up at the old wooden house, you saw a single room of tatami mats, a bonsai plant, and a counter built into a wire-frame cube.

“The main point was the cube-like design,” says Eiichi Kunitomo, the head barista and owner. “And in that cube, a single barista, who serves a single customer.

“The concept is similar to the Japanese tea ceremony. Itโ€™s a very minimal spaceโ€”thereโ€™s the person who makes the tea, the person who drinks it, and theyโ€™re face to face, sharing an experience.”

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

At the counter you’d findย a barista. Next to him, an espresso machine, and in front of you, a menu. Aย lab coat was the craftsman’sย uniform, and the minimal environment reflected his single-minded goal.

That barista listened to your order, and asked a simple question:

Osatou iremasu ka?”

(“Do you take sugar?”)

This was a starting point for communication, a tiny gesture at the heart of the experience,ย aimed at making each moment meaningful, transparent, and centered on the customer.

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Says Kunitomo: โ€œAt a lot of restaurants, the espresso machine is set up where you canโ€™t see it. I wanted to create a space where the customer could see everythingโ€”an environment open to communication.โ€

Each detail happened right before your eyesโ€”the grinding, the setting, the drip of the espresso, the milk steaming, the delicate pour of the drink.

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

It was a moment in time shared between barista and customer.

The Japanese call it “Ichigo Ichie“: Once in a lifetime.

“This one cup, for this one person, might be the last coffee they ever drink,” explains Kunitomo. “So we want to make the best coffee we can for that particular person every time. Each moment is important, and we might never meet that customer again.”

Kunitomo and Omotesando Koffee see themselves as craftspeopleโ€”crafting an experience directed by flavor, and whichย ultimately tells a story unique to a place, time, and person. In Japanese, it’s called “kishลtenketsu,” the four-part story structure of classic literatureโ€”beginning, development, twist, and conclusion.

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

And through Omotesando, Kunitomo looked to bring this to coffee.

“When the experience begins, and before it ends, there are changes in the taste experience. So the first sip, the second sip, and the third sip are slightly different. Itโ€™s not about focusing on impact, but rather how to give the coffee a story from start to finish. So the customer feels a change from the first sip to the second, that continues through to the end.ย And in that single cup, you feel like youโ€™ve experienced a story.”

There is imperceptible thought and feeling in the creation of such an unforgettable experience. And each aspect of Omotesando Koffeeโ€”the garden, the house, the cube, the barista, the process, and the coffeeโ€”was like a chapter in a story, written in a cup and told through the tastebuds.ย And each retelling was a little different, every time.

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

As you sipped from yourย cup, and took in the season, you were reminded that it’s less the destination, and more the journey.

Yetย like with all journeys, and all stories, there is an end, a last page.

And so, on December 30th, 2015, Omotesando Koffee closed its doors.

Kunitomo says that originally, Omotesando was intended as a one-year pop-up shop,ย inย a house soon to be demolished. The buildingย was fragile, unsteady, and ancient, yet alsoย utterly charming.

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

The landlord had said to Kunitomo, “If you’re happy to stay here until we tear it down, it’s yours.”

It was the house the landlord had grown up in, the house he was raised in. And his heart was warmed byย the many visitors who stopped by for coffee that first year.

So much soย that he let them continue another year.ย And another. And another.

Five years passed that way, untilย the creaks and groans of that little house simply couldnโ€™t be ignored.ย “Itโ€™s in the culture,โ€ says Kunitomo. โ€œThese old houses have always been wood. In America and Europe, buildings are made with brick and stone, and they last forever. But in Japan, when you build a house with stone, it breaks down in an earthquake. If itโ€™s wood, itโ€™s flexible and itโ€™ll stand in an earthquake, but it canโ€™t keep for hundreds of years. I feel like this mindset is very much a natural part of Japanese people. The idea that thereโ€™s an ending to things.”

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

Kunitomo talks of beginnings and endings like the sakuraโ€”the cherry blossomโ€”and its short bloom period, a startling beauty accentuated by a transient nature.

So if we think of Omotesando Koffee likeย a cherry blossom, perhaps we shouldn’t see it for its inevitable end, but rather the five-year bloom we were fortunate to witness.

However, for those lucky enough to live in Hong Kong, 2016 will see the opening of Omotesando Koffeeโ€™s first international storeโ€”a chance to bring a little Japanese coffee culture to a different Asian market.

And for those in and around Tokyo, there is always Omotesando Koffeeโ€™s ever-sleek sibling, Toranomon Koffee.

omotesando koffee tokyo japan coffee cafe barista sprudge

Visit Omotesando Koffee’sย official website.

Hengtee Limย (@Hent03) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in Tokyo. Read moreย Hengtee Lim on Sprudge.

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