Omotesando Koffee, by Civilian Tokyo
The backstreets away from Tokyo’s megastore-packed Omotesando Hills are densely packed, difficult to navigate, but crammed with very good reasons to explore. Three streets in off the main road is blink-and-you-miss-it Omotesando Koffee. The only indication that something intriguing is afoot in this tiny little kabana is the line of customers waiting in the street as owner Eiichi Kunitomo (who’s also the man behind larger local bakery and coffee shop Bread, Espresso &) carefully prepares coffees, with meticulous slowness, at the counter inside.
There are as may cold coffee drinks as hot on offer; I opted for a (hot) mocha, which came topped with a mound of whipped cream and chocolate syrup, and, just because I wasn’t sure that was unhealthy enough, chose one of the little cuboids of baked vanilla custard on the end of the bar, the sole food item on offer. In the “courtyard” outside there’s a tiny bench where you can sit and drink, but most customers seem to like to hang out with their takeaway cups in the street outside. It’s all very calm, almost otherworldly so – though the neatness and small scale are apt to make the unwary visitor feel less than ethereal. I banged my head on the doorway lintel on entering to place my order, and once again on leaving. Still worth it.
Omotesando Koffee, 4–15–3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
ooo-koffee.com