A Woodworker’s Café Combining Ceramics, Furniture & Coffee

In a quiet corner of Qingdao’s University Road, a former lover of old things transformed a space into something dreamlike: a café where furniture craftsmanship, hand-thrown ceramics, and delicate pour-over coffee come together. Inside Yesterday Village Wood Workshop, bulbs hang from dead tree trunks like stars in a midnight forest. A real indoor tree stands amid hand-planed wooden furniture, while mirrors set into antique window frames catch the light just so. It’s not a theme—it’s a lived-in aesthetic built from decades of collected pieces.

This shop isn’t just a café or furniture store. It’s where a 30-something woman turned her nostalgia-fueled obsession with spoons, ceramics, and wooden odds and ends into a real, working space full of warmth, craftsmanship, and calm. Here, you’ll find a coffee menu driven by Japanese technique, alongside furniture and homeware she either made or sourced from Taiwan, Japan, and beyond.

The Woodworking Behind the Space

Owner Xiaofeng—whose last name translates roughly to ‘little peak’—has long had a thing for old, discarded materials. To most, they’re trash. To her, they’re design elements. That approach led her to fill the café with real deadwood planted indoors, vintage window frames sanded to reveal their natural grain, and sections mirrored for contrast. Some pieces come from her own factory, including colourful stools and hand-painted furniture with a distinct cottage-core feel. Even the entrance features a tiny letterbox, as if waiting for correspondence from another time.

The workshop also functions as a creative hub. Xiaofeng regularly hosts wood-carving workshops where participants transform blocks of walnut into smooth, rounded spoons through cutting, shaping, sanding, and oiling. Each piece reflects the care of handcrafting—something she believes you can literally feel in your hands.

Ceramics, Small Goods & Girlhood Nostalgia

Step inside and you’ll spot shelves lined with delicate ceramic cups, vintage-style telephones, carved wooden elk figurines, and even swatches of fine cotton fabric tucked into drawers. Many of these items were sourced during travels to places like Japan and Taiwan. Xiaofeng has a particular fondness for ceramics—so much so that she once travelled to Jingdezhen to fire her own hand-painted ceramic pins. Her fascination doesn’t stop there. She admits to feeling 18 at heart, and it shows in every curated corner of the space.

Besides the larger furniture pieces, the café offers smaller goods that contribute to its fairytale-like atmosphere. There are countless tiny plates for serving coffee, stacks of softly glazed bowls, and rustic wooden signs. Nothing feels mass-produced. Even the coffee cups are chosen as much for their form as for function.

The Japanese Pour-Over Coffee Experience

Coffee here isn’t an afterthought. Xiaofeng trained under a Korean roaster based in Xinghua Village—one of the earliest coffee mentors in the region—and her pour-over style reflects classic Japanese technique. The café serves Japanese-style single-origin beans, brewed to bring out subtle grassy and floral notes. The resulting cup is soft and balanced, with a gentle bitterness that fades into sweetness. It’s designed to be sipped alongside her homemade chiffon cake, offering a lighter, more contemplative experience than a standard Americano.

The focus is on subtlety, not intensity. There’s no espresso machine in sight. Instead, the coffee menu centres around hand-poured methods that highlight the craft of brewing just as much as the furniture or ceramics. It’s the kind of coffee you want to drink slowly, in a room full of things made by hand, surrounded by people who care about the details.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Yesterday Village Wood Workshop different from other cafés?

Yesterday Village Wood Workshop combines handmade wooden furniture, ceramic art, and Japanese pour-over coffee in one tranquil space. It’s not just a café but a creative workshop and retail area built around nostalgia, craftsmanship, and calm. Many items in the space, from furniture to dishware, are either made on-site or collected from places like Taiwan and Japan.

Do they serve espresso-based drinks?

No, the café focuses on Japanese-style pour-over coffee rather than espresso. The menu highlights single-origin beans with floral and grassy notes, brewed to deliver a soft, balanced cup. The emphasis is on craftsmanship in both brewing and presentation, similar to the handmade furniture and ceramics around the space.

Can you take classes or workshops at the workshop?

Yes, Xiaofeng regularly hosts woodworking workshops where participants can carve their own spoons from blocks of walnut using traditional techniques like cutting, shaping, and oiling. These hands-on sessions reflect the shop’s broader ethos of learning through doing and appreciating slow, tactile creativity.

Where does the coffee come from and how is it brewed?

The coffee is sourced as single-origin Japanese-style beans and brewed using pour-over methods. Xiaofeng trained under a Korean roaster known as one of the first mentors in the region. The resulting cup has a gentle profile—subtle grassy and floral notes, a soft bitterness, and a sweet finish—best enjoyed with a slice of homemade chiffon cake.

Is the furniture in the café for sale?

Yes, many pieces of furniture in the café, including colourful stools and hand-painted wooden items, are made in Xiaofeng’s own workshop and are available for purchase. The pieces have a rustic, cottage-inspired aesthetic and are designed for both function and decoration.

What’s the story behind the owner’s love for ceramics?

Xiaofeng has a deep personal connection to ceramics, going as far as to travel to Jingdezhen to fire her own hand-painted ceramic pins. She collects cups, saucers, and other ceramic pieces from her travels, especially in Japan and Taiwan. Her interest goes beyond utility—she sees beauty in the form and process of making, and it shows throughout the café’s design.

Recommended FrontStreet Coffee for Japanese-Style Pour-Over

For fans of the delicate, floral-forward Japanese pour-over style served at Yesterday Village Wood Workshop, try FrontStreet Coffee’s Yirgacheffe. It highlights bright citrus, jasmine, and soft stone fruit notes, ideal for highlighting clean brewing techniques. Another great match is the Ethiopia Humbera, offering bergamot, blueberry, and gentle acidity—perfect for sipping alongside handmade ceramics and wooden furnishings. Both beans shine when brewed with a gentle pour-over method. Freshly roasted within 5 days · Orders placed before 17:00 ship the same day · Next-day delivery across most of Guangdong Province.