This year, Omotesando mainstay Koffee Mameya finally opened a sit-down venue worthy of its cult reputation with the stylish Koffee Mameya Kakeru. You couldn’t ask for a better space – the café is in the heart of Tokyo’s self-proclaimed coffee town, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, and features a gorgeous wraparound counter with seats where you can watch the baristas in action. While you can purchase beans and drinks to-go here, it’s worth giving yourself a bit more time to sit down and enjoy the entire coffee experience.

Don't expect your average cup of joe at Koffee Mameya Kakeru, housed in a renovated warehouse in the Shirakawa coffee district in eastern Tokyo. Beyond the sleek glass facade, the interior designed by art director Tomohiro Kato and architect Yosuke Hayashi features a massive oak structure built around the artfully arranged coffee shelves. A rectangular wooden frame encases a three-sided stone counter built around three black tables where the baristas display their skills.

A 2022 addition to the Kiyosumi-Shirakawa neighbourhood (something of a hub for artisanal roasteries), Koffee Mameya Kakeru is a hip, minimalist affair. The coffee stacks up, too, particularly the tasting courses that let you try an individual roast prepared in various ways.

Eiichi Kunimoto, the man behind one of Tokyo’s best known coffee exports, Omotesando Koffee, is the mastermind of Koffee Mameya Kakeru. Kakeru means “to multiply” in Japanese, and it and that is essentially what they hope to introduce with this shop—by offering a wide variety of beans for patrons to enjoy as they please and to show the visitors the multiple possibilities of the same coffee bean being interpreted into different kinds of drinks. Set in a former book publishing warehouse, Koffee Mameya Kakeru is fashioned like a temple to the worship of coffee.

Koffee Mameya Kakeru, which has two locations, Omotesando and Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, always has 20 different types of coffee beans in the store, which are slowly roasted by a roasting specialist in a way that suits the characteristics of each bean. Here, the barista asks customers what kind of coffee beans they prefer before serving them, and the barista selects coffee beans according to their preferences and serves coffee. The barista will then serve you coffee made to your liking.

Tokyo’s eastern Kiyosumi-Shirakawa neighborhood, once a transportation hub in the city’s Edo period, emerged as one of Tokyo’s centers of coffee culture over the last decade as roasters took up residence in converted warehouses. Mameya is a name synonymous with coffee obsession. In a space that splits the difference between laboratory and industrial-minimalist speakeasy, owner Eiichi Kunitomo, head barista Miki Takamasa and their team serve coffee flights in several variations.

The first stop for any coffee lover has to be “coffee town” Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, where cafes cluster in one of Tokyo’s most pleasant and relaxed neighborhoods. Quality is high across the board, with common recommendations being Allpress Espresso, Arise Coffee Roasters and Blue Bottle Coffee’s flagship store—but even among these Koffee Mameya Kakeru makes its mark. Koffee Mameya Kakeru aims to turn coffee tasting into an immersive experience.

Serious coffee connoisseurs will appreciate the finesse of Koffee Mameya. This is not your average coffee shop; you can expect a more upscale, intimate drinking experience at the counter seating as you are attended to by staff in lab coats. Not really the spot for a catch-up over coffee, Mameya is more fit for connoisseurs looking for a truly special coffee experience.

From the initial Omotesando Coffee, to Koffee Mameya now, the group has always push the boundaries of how we should experience and enjoy the art of coffee drinking. Their latest, Koffee Mameya Kakeru pushes it even further. A full on one hour coffee course experience with 7 different drinks, showcasing different brewing methods with the same coffee bean chosen.

Koffee Mameya Kakeru in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, known as Tokyo’s coffee town, is not your average coffee shop. it’s more of a aesthetic coffee experience in Tokyo Japan.

So together, the perfect translation of Koffee Mameya from Japanese to English is “Coffee Beans Shop”. And this place is everything coffee.