Blue Brew is a new roaster and cafe in a very old space in Sumida-ku, Tokyo. Despite the recent opening date and a modern selection of roasts in a stylishly minimalist space, Blue Brew’s vibe is decidedly old-school community focused.
In fact, that very community focused nature is why this review is much shorter than originally intended.
On the Saturday in April when I visited Blue Brew, I used my typical method of finding new shops – scrolling through Google Maps until I found something interesting. This part of Sumida-ku is one of my favorite parts of Tokyo as there’s still plenty of shitamachi charm left, but more modern businesses are moving into the spaces alongside the older establishments. Blue Brew fits well into this movement – the building it’s housed in is about 100 years old, according to shop owner Ken, but the shop itself just opened this April.
There are a couple of smaller chairs along the wall and outside, but the focus of the seating design at Blue Brew is a large center table where most of the customers sit around after ordering. This is a deliberate choice, a way to get people away from their devices in front of them and talking with the people around them. It worked.
After ordering, I chose a seat at the table in the far corner, near a couple of younger women who looked to be together. They weren’t, they had all just met that day at the shop, but all were chatting together as if older friends. When my coffee arrived – a light roast iced Ethipoian Baturo Sidama – and I settled in, I immediately was invited to join the conversation. Turns out one of them had lived in my home state for a while, and was a fan of Chiba Lotte like myself. All were coffee fans of course, and doing the same wandering from shop to shop as I was.
The reason this is a shorter review is that conversation led to an invite to wander on to a local Mukojima drinking establishment, so I only had the one coffee and didn’t get any pictures of the bean list. But I can say the bean list was nice, leaning towards lighter roasts as is typical for newer Third Wave shops. I also appreciated the relatively reasonable pricing – mine was about 800 yen for a healthy sized Aeropress brew. Ken-san uses pourover for hot drinks (looked like Kalita 155 style drippers) and of course espresso based drinks are on the menu.
Ken-san lives upstairs from the shop, so the hours he keeps are a bit long for Tokyo shops – about 7:30/8-20:00 every day. He says it’s quite busy all day, and for the time I was there, I saw quite a few people wandering in and out who seemed like they were already regulars. I was chatting with someone at a different shop a few days later, they tell me they have already started popping in to Blue Brew in the mornings and teleworking from the big table. It’s a communal space for sure.
I’ll be back here soon, hopefully next time with a chance to sample some different coffees on the menu.
