The Café Dispatch #19
When a fashion heritage brand collabs with the perfect coffee shop, how a satire turned into a viral coffee brand and the end of Community as we know it
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☕️
After a weekend of travels, I’m back in Paris — and with that, a fresh shortlist of cafés I need to go see. One of them being Another Coffee Shop.
It made me laugh, and immediately reminded me of the brilliant concept that made all the noise at the London Coffee Festival: Flat White or F#ck Off (more about them in the Overheard section).
We’re all starting to sense that cafés might soon outnumber us in big cities (not quite I know), but there’s a lingering feeling many of us have a hard time letting go of, and it seems some have decided to just lean into it, with humour.
But if we zoom out and look at cafés on a global scale, at the trends bubbling up across social media, the news, the magazines: a few facts start to paint a clearer picture of where this is all heading:
Independent bookstores in the US have grown 70% since 2020. 422 new ones opened last year alone. In a country that spent a decade writing them off as Amazon casualties.
And in London, a carrom night (a South Asian board game) held in a single room in Notting Hill received 800 applications for 44 spots.
Neither of these is a coffee shop story but I think both explain exactly why new cafés keep opening everywhere, and why so many of them are actually working.
One of the carrom players said: “people are tired of endlessly scrolling. People crave friendship.” I read that and thought: yes, absolutely, or maybe more accurately: we’re fine scrolling, we’d just rather do it with friends, in a wonderful space.
There’s a nuance here, and it’s that in 2026, a beautifully designed café with a very extensive drinks menu and delicious pastries isn’t enough anymore.
Until the end of last year, everyone was talking about COMMUNITY, and that started to feel like a buzzword most companies across every industry used Ad Nauseum without really knowing what they meant by it, as long as it gestured at potential (massive) revenue.
Which is, I believe, why so many of them failed. Community takes years to build, sometimes faster, but it always takes time. When cafés offer books, running clubs, boardgames, animal company, or a stage for music and standup comedy, they give us a reason to come back, to fall in love with the space, but mostly with the people we start to associate with it.
Which is maybe why Smiley Coffee 1972 (the yellow face first published in France-Soir in 1972), a 54-year-old cultural icon, chose to open a café as its physical home in 2026.
When a brand with that kind of heritage picks a café as its flagship format, it says a lot about why so many brands, from fashion to major cultural movements, have gone the coffee route. They understand that rituals build community, and community builds fandoms. And in today’s economic landscape, every brand is chasing their 1,000 (or 1,000,000) true fans.
But for that, they need to give their people a reason to walk through the door, and keep coming back.
I had to illustrate all of this with a café I’m genuinely dying to visit: Caffè Cucchi by Marni. From what I’ve gathered scrolling through it, they’ve activated quite a few things: board games, social musical evenings, and of course a full rebrand that reminds you exactly what Marni is all about.
It looks incredible but what I’d really love to know is how it holds up on a daily basis, whether walking in actually makes people stop and swoon, or whether this is mostly a beautiful set piece built for Milan Design Week. If you’ve been, please tell us everything.
(also have you noticed the number of dogs featuring our cafés on socials!?)
What I’d order: Most likely a cappuccino (?)
Luckin Coffee just launched alcoholic drinks across its 33,000+ stores in China. With their net profit down despite revenue up 35%, they’re fighting for new day parts and margin. It’s a good reminder that many cafés struggle during afternoons when peak hours passed…
A London pop-up served exactly one thing: a flat white. The name: Flat White or F*ck Off is largely a critique of over-customisation. It started as a satirical design project and ended up going properly viral. In a world where you can order a 38-variable Starbucks drink on an app, zero choice turned out to be the most interesting concept at the London Coffee Festival.
I came across Coffee Kreis while searching for interesting coffee cup concepts. And IMO as a former café owner, I love that concept. It’s simple and powerful because they make reusable cups out of 30% recycled coffee grounds. It’s one of those ideas that makes you wonder why it took this long.
If you enjoyed this edition, don’t miss these past editions,
The costly mistakes to avoid when opening a café in France
The specialty coffee scene in Paris is booming, between four to six new cafés are opening every week! But with that growth, comes a lot to be aware of if you’re thinking of opening a café, and that’s where Marie-Hélène comes in, as a consultant with
Niche Cafés for Bookish People
Earlier this week, I posted a photo on Notes of a beautiful, sun-drenched cafe overflowing with books. I called it 'every millennial's dream,' and thousands of you agreed. It got me thinking about th…
The Café Dispatch #9
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, and don’t forget to grab your favourite cup of coffee ☕️
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As a Barista, I really only ever want to make flat whites. A few weeks ago an entire office came in for coffee. Everyone individually ordered a flat white and then all laughed and said they must be the most basic and boring people. I told them they had good taste. The simplicity is key. Nothing can hide in it.