Onibus Coffee

Atsushi Sakao trained as a barista in Australia before opening the first Onibus in Okusawa in 2012, then moved the roastery two years later to this narrow Nakameguro building, a former private home most recently run as a porridge restaurant. The name means public bus in Portuguese, a nod to coffee as something that should carry people and ideas between each other rather than sit behind a counter.

The space keeps its original wooden bones under a design by Kazufumi Suzuki, seating downstairs by the front window and a small loft upstairs looking over the Tokyu Toyoko line tracks that run just past the door. Beans are roasted onsite in small batches, sourced directly from farms in Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Colombia, and the hand drip list changes with what just came off the roaster that week.