Blue Bottle Coffee has opened its latest flagship café in Tokyo, the sixth one to open in the Japanese capital, as the American coffee outfit expands its retail footprint in Japan.
Located in Sangenjaya, the San Francisco-based café is situated in a 50-year old low-rise building, which stands at the end of a no-through road between two buildings; located just a 3-minute walking distance from Sangenjaya station.
Blue Bottle Café enlisted Schemata Architects once again to design the complete space layout. Working with the building’s current fittings, Schemata – the firm behind stores for 3.1 Phillip Lim and Loewe – took inspiration from the designs used with the previous space ownership, resulting in industrial concrete texture mixed with Japanese cedar wood.
However, the 100-square-metre space does reflect Blue Bottle’s bright and open feel, an aesthetic witnessed in the other five Tokyo outlets. There is specific area for workshops and barista training, along with a “soulful public space” for the local community, in a bid to give the company a strong connection to its most recent Japanese locale.
Offering more than just coffee and related products, customers can go to the register at the far end of the dead-end road, or stop by the drip-bar and walk around the seating area, before venturing outside to the garden in the backyard area. Walking along the building guest will find an entrance to a gallery also.
“This building is designed in such a way that customers will experience the continuation of this deep spatial sequence,” said Schemata Architects’ Jo Nagasaka, who is the architect in charge of the store.
James Freeman founded Blue Bottle Coffee Company in San Francisco in 2002. Still headquartered in Oakland, California, consumer goods giant Nestle acquired a majority stake in the new wave coffee firm earlier this year.
In 2017, Nestlé acquired a 68 percent stake in the company for some $500 million. The firm has plans to have 55 locations by the end of the year. Blue Bottle stores are located in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, DC, and Tokyo.