Coutume Café

One of the shops that made 'industrial' a Paris coffee-bar aesthetic in the first place — white square tile, stainless steel, glassware lined up like a chemistry bench. The interior, designed by CUT Architectures, was unusual enough when it opened to draw attention from design press well beyond the coffee world, and it helped define a whole generation of Paris cafés that followed its lead rather than the classic zinc-counter brasserie look. Coutume roasts its own coffee and this original Babylone location still functions as both café and de facto showroom for the brand, more laboratory than living room.

Bagged beans, subscriptions, and brewing equipment are sold at the counter and online, and the shop takes its sourcing and roasting seriously enough that staff can talk through origin and process in real depth if asked. It sits a short walk from Sèvres-Babylone, in a part of the 7th arrondissement better known for antique dealers and government ministries than specialty coffee, which makes it something of an outlier on its own street as well as in the city's coffee history.