About Us Coffee

Yasunari Sawanoi grew up in a family running a public bathhouse and disliked coffee through his student years, drinking it only as instant to stay awake studying. He came to appreciate it properly as a working adult, struck by how fruity a well made cup could taste, and at thirty walked away from a career in fashion, choosing to open About Us in 2019 near Fushimi Inari Shrine with zero industry experience, reasoning that full responsibility from day one would teach him faster than any apprenticeship.

A pandemic hit six months after opening, and impeccable beans, loyal customers and a successful crowdfunding campaign carried the shop through two hard years. Redemption came in 2022, when Sawanoi's Ethiopia Niguse Gemeda Mude took first place at Tokyo's Coffee Collection competition, and he has since earned sensory judge certificates for both the Japan Barista Championship and the Japan Brewer's Cup. The room stays deliberately monochrome, white walls as a canvas and black fixtures as a frame, so the five rotating single origins and the regulars sitting with them supply the only color.