If you refer to the suggested walking route map from my previous article, you can see where Garage Coffee is exactly in Yotsuya. (If you have missed it, click on the link to discover the locations for the movie Your Name in Yotsuya).
To tell the truth, I discovered Garage Coffee out of luck on my way back from my first visit at Suga shrine. It was winter, I was freezing cold and looking for a rest when I noticed its ‘coffee’ flag from afar. When I got closer, I immediately liked the old fashioned styled building. At the time, I didn’t know it was also related to the movie.
A nice atmosphere
Garage Coffee does not just looks like an old coffee house: it is a genuine old coffee house! When the building was constructed 43 years ago, the wife of the building’s owner decided to open a café on the first floor. Such cafés were very fashionable at the time, and the setting has remained the same: antique furniture, wooden or blue and white tiled floor, charming windows. It looks so nice and cozy that it has been used as a set for several Japanese TV series! It’s no wonder why it was chosen as the decor for famous directors Makoto Shinkai and Shunji Iwai for their interview/dialogue in a magazine. Of course, you can sit at the exact same table!
Nowadays the place is mainly used as a bar at night, but two days per week (on Wednesdays and Thursdays) it goes back to its origins and serves good quality coffee.
Great Coffee and other delicacies
The menu at Garage Coffee is a little unusual for Tokyo. By this I mean it will delight your inner hipster: its products are either local, fair trade and/or organic. It has all the basic drinks you will expect from a café, and their ingredients are carefully chosen by the owner. It also serves a small range of vegan and gluten free cakes and cookies, which is still quite rare in Tokyo. Among the other special features of the menu, there are toasts made with the Balmuda toaster. The Balmuda toaster is very trendy in Japan right now because it keeps the tenderness at the core of the bread.
The owner is a very friendly Japanese woman who does not hesitate to have a chat even with her first-time visitors. She speaks only a little English but will quickly make you feel at home just as if you were one of the locals! And if you ask her, she will happily share her favorite addresses in Arakicho to end your day.
For smartphone users, please click here to go to the Tadaima Japan website which includes detailed location information.
