The Lutian family is not just coffee.

"Lutian Coffee Research Society" mainly focuses on improving professionalism and cost control in store design.

Lutian's shop is hidden in an old Shanghai community on Jiangyin Road. When I go for the first time, even if I turn seven and eight correctly according to the navigation, I still have to go through the guidance of several residents to find it smoothly. In addition, the shop adopts a reservation system, and under normal circumstances, the door is closed and there are no signs, so it is easy to turn a blind eye even if you pass by.

"my budget when I opened the store decided that I had no choice." Gao Xia, the hostess of Lutian family, told the interface reporter, "and I prefer to entertain friends who really understand coffee." The founder of the Lutian family is Hideo Nakajima, a Japanese baker and barista, and Gao Xia is his wife. Their stores are aimed at mature coffee customers who already have a full understanding and love of boutique coffee.

Push open the red double door into the shop, three rooms in the shape of a patio. When they first opened the store, the Nakajima couple with a limited budget rented only the long room on the left-hand side of the door, half for baking space and half for hand-brewing coffee and entertaining guests. A year later, under the condition that the operation of the store and the sales of online coffee beans were good, the Lutian family took the whole yard.

The name tag at the door of the baker and the flowers in the courtyard. Photo Source: Lutian Home

Now the leftmost room in the door is used as a baking studio, allowing Nakajima to concentrate on making coffee; the courtyard and the rightmost room serve as seating areas for customers, with wooden long tables and chairs; and the horizontal room in the middle has become an artifact exhibition area. a variety of cups and plates are matched on the wooden table.

"I can't do complicated decoration, and I don't have the money to buy furniture." Gao Xia added. Fortunately, she has the help of a group of friends. She went to the furniture brand Mumo to seek friendship and cooperation, on the condition that the Lutian family had transformed into its product showroom as a whole in exchange for the opportunity to use furniture for free; the "decorations" such as backpacks and clothes in several rooms were also displayed by friends; and the bouquets of flowers in the corner of the courtyard were sent by friends and regular guests who came to drink coffee. If the red wooden door is closed so that the Lutian family is a little aloof and alienated, then when you enter the yard, you will feel a kind of human beauty.

The shopkeeper of Lutian family Nakajima at work Photo Source: Lutian family