Kaikado Café — Kyoto, Japan
Hand-crafting copper, tin and brass tea-caddies since 1875, Kaikado has now also started brewing tea at its newly opened café, a short stroll from its small workshop and flagship store in Kyoto’s Kawarmachi district.
Housed in a 90-year-old listed building, the café serves an eclectic selection of treats, including cakes from local bakery Hanakago, tea from London’s Postcard Teas and coffee from Wani Coffee in Tokyo.
Designer Thomas Lykke from Copenhagen-based studio OeO was charged with transforming the old city-tram warehouse and has skilfully combined his native Nordic sensibility with the century old heritage of Kaikado in a bright interior with partially exposed concrete walls, that are tempered with light oak furnishings and cooper lamps, designed by OeO and made by Kaikado.
At the moment, a visit to the second floor bar is by invitation only, but this might change in the future. If it’s any consolation, the café is set to age beautifully and become even better over time.
ADDRESS
352 Sumiyoshi-cho
Shimogyoku Kyoto
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Originally from Denmark, Jens H. Jensen has been calling Japan his home for almost two decades. Since 2014 he has worked with Wallpaper* as the Japan Editor. His main interests are architecture, crafts and design. Besides writing and editing, he consults numerous business in Japan and beyond and designs and build retail, residential and moving (read: vans) interiors.
-
Discover the cool and offbeat designs of jeweller Inesa KovalovaInesa Kovalova's jewellery celebrates a mix of mediums and materials
-
A group of friends built this California coastal home, rooted in nature and modern designNestled in the Sea Ranch community, a new coastal home, The House of Four Ecologies, is designed to be shared between friends, with each room offering expansive, intricate vistas
-
Men’s Fashion Week A/W 2026 is almost here. Here’s what to expectFrom this season’s roster of Pitti Uomo guest designers to Jonathan Anderson’s sophomore men’s collection at Dior – as well as Véronique Nichanian’s Hermès swansong – everything to look out for at Men’s Fashion Week A/W 2026
-
The most anticipated hotel openings of 2026From landmark restorations to remote retreats, these are the hotel debuts shaping the year ahead
-
Five travel destinations to have on your radar in 2026The cultural heavyweights worth building an itinerary around as culture and creativity come together in powerful new ways
-
The best way to see Mount Fuji? Book a stay hereAt the western foothills of Mount Fuji, Gora Kadan’s second property translates imperial heritage into a deeply immersive, design-led retreat
-
The most stylish hotel debuts of 2025A Wallpaper* edit of this year’s defining hotel openings. Design-led stays to shape your next escape
-
Tokyo’s most cinematic stay reopens as an exercise in architectural self-controlPark Hyatt Tokyo and Studio Jouin Manku demonstrate how design can evolve without erasing memory, balancing modernist heritage with contemporary comfort
-
The Wallpaper* team’s travel highlights of the yearA year of travel distilled. Discover the destinations that inspired our editors on and off assignment
-
Curvilinear futurism meets subtropical beaches at Not A Hotel’s ZHA-designed Okinawa retreatZaha Hadid Architects has revealed the design for the first property in Not A Hotel’s futuristic new Vertex collection, coming soon to southern Japan
-
Free flights across Japan? ANA just made it happenA new All Nippon Airways scheme in collaboration with the Japan National Tourism Organization aims to ease overtourism in major hubs by boosting regional travel