Café Dispatch #27 : How to Build a Better Café for Every City
Blue Tokai, Third Wave, and the case for making your café look nothing like the one in London.
Welcome to the Café Dispatch, a weekly letter about interesting café trends across the globe. If you enjoy it, please feel free to share it ☕️
I am writing this letter from the most wonderful city in India, Hyderabad - very subjectively said, but its luscious streets, greenery everywhere and its number of fantastic cafés serving Indian Specialty Coffee has made me a fan. Now that I am about to leave this country, I’ll be forever grateful for one of the most incredible weeks of my life. More details to come soon.
This week’s Café Dispatch includes: three tips on copying business models successfully, observations from India and the weekly news rundown
My head is spinning from all the things I’d love to say and write about but after spending one of the most intense, and bestest week of my life abroad, I had to pause to remember that coffee is continuously evolving. Whether we speak about the landscape in developing countries like India or in developed countries like the western world, us, humans are having the same conversation about our passion for coffee.
Why do we keep seeing the same cafés in Delhi than the ones we see in London, and why do we have to copy existing models? Why are we not questioning our passion more often and why are we not taking more risks?
Those are loaded questions with sensible answers, yet I do miss the excitement of finding the kind of spaces which no other cities would offer but the one you’re in right here, right now.
In a world where social media gets you footfall and fame for a while, it is easy to go down the path of the well-known, already loved design. It is easy to review what is sensational and try our best to do the same hoping the audience will be in awe with what we’ve got to offer. Yet, each model has its own playbook. But also, its own values and thus, chance for continued successes.
A simple example, Third Wave or Blue Tokai in India. Both reminded me very much of Starbucks and well, Blue Bottle. Compact spaces, good design and easy menu to go with irrespective of where I am in the world. Yet (!) so very far from what I expected.
Here are three things which I feel strongly about when it comes to those chains;
Know your Customer. Don’t shape an audience, yes you can predict but still… Make time to understand them extremely well, especially when education is a core part of your success.
Design your Menu mindfully. If what you offer is a poor copy of what exists abroad but your ingredients are impossibly hard to source or recreate due to local produces but also people’s skill, don’t. Reduce your menu and ensure you get regular feedback on it.
Cortado was boiling hot and bitter, and the bagel though colourful was rather sad and bland.. Copy the Design but remember Values should be yours, and operationalised around your goals. It’s easy to make a lookalike but everything else should be about your vision, mission and ultimately, your people.
Of course there are many more learnings and observations I feel should go into that list, but let’s stick to this and remember that those chains have made us enjoy coffee in airports (which is a huge plus!). It isn’t lost on me that copying successful models is part of the game, but though scale is important, what’s even more important is the quality, consistency and cohesiveness among all - visitors and operators. When that finds alignment, everything else works.
And an example representing just that is Naad Coffee. A coffee & roasterys space in a large 1-level area where all the seating is in the centre (quite unusual I found for Indian) and thus making it look busy at all time, but also where homemade bread is confectioned, syrups made in-house, coffee is roasted and where the plates look originally theirs. The menu was a breath of fresh air, respecting Indian palates but exploring ideas to further their offering.
What other cafés would you add to the list of copycats in dire need to find their own voice?
Earlier this year, I made a tiny bucket list. I listed all the events and places I wanted to visit to hunt down incredible cafés. One of them was India (box ✅) and another one is Melbourne. Wild dreams of speaking at MICE are very alive and thus, my Google Map is just growing as I write this.
Enough said - Airflow Coffee is one of them. Just opening their Instagram page felt like a warm hug. They are small but their facade and window opening is adorable. It’s inviting besides being different and eye catching.
In today’s world where we are being teased with hooks, an entrance is just that. The hook that’ll make you walk in (or not).
If you have visited Airflow, would you recommend it?
Indian Coffee is having a moment. Just this week, a rather lengthy article was published about South India filter coffee which I had earlier this week - and I loved it!
Blue Bottle has opened a new location in Shibuya, Tokyo. Looking at these pictures, it made me realise cold spaces might be what many are going for… yet it defeats the entire purpose of what having a coffee really means (at least to me).
Luckin has finally opened in the US. I am excited to see how this will pan out since coffee and our taste is changing, and young people will be there trying new drinks. This is a smart move from them on a PR level to write about what people should order when walking in. Well done and well, let’s see where they’ll be in 3 months from now.
If you enjoyed this edition, don’t miss these past editions,
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This made me think of one of my all time favorite Ezra Klein episodes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-to-discover-your-own-taste/id1548604447?i=1000641013414