Shanghai's most amorous cafe

The most photogenic and glamorous cafe I have ever seen

Old Mac Cafe:

Address: 25A Taojiang Road, Shanghai (near Hengshan Road)

Tel: 64660753

The bookshelves of the newly renovated Old McCafe are not yet full:

This is the owner of the cafe: Mr. Mak.

No. 25 Taojiang Road, where Laomai Cafe is located, is a German eclectic garden house built in 1927. It was originally a German consular residence in Shanghai. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, it was assigned to Zhou Ren, vice president of the East China Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The building where Laomai Cafe is located is the auxiliary building of No. 25, which used to be the garage of the foreign house. It can be seen that all the old houses in this area have their own value, but they are always hidden. There is no word "Old Mac Cafe" on the outside of the building, but that's what everyone calls it.

Laomai, who has lived and traveled in more than 40 countries, including Australia, Britain and the Netherlands, is familiar with shabby chic style and is not only keen to collect local antiquities everywhere, but also to develop a keen sense of discovering new functions in old objects. Living in Shanghai for many years is actually an important process for Lao Mai to collect relics from the demolition of an old house in Shanghai. Perhaps he doesn't even remember how many years of "rubbish" he has picked up, including the miscellaneous and interesting things he brought back from abroad. Anyway, there is no room in the house. In the face of more and more old wood removed from the old house, Lao Mai's solution is to reuse the waste to build this three-story cafe with a basement (the basement is a small shop, selling almost all the good things found abroad. In fact, almost everything in the store has a price tag, and you can buy it back if you like.

This cafe was designed independently by Lao Mai. I saw many small cafes abroad. When I started this restaurant, I actually thought very clearly that the wood collected was used as floor and wall decoration, and then painted with Matt varnish. It was very difficult for workers to understand this idea of making old. Lao Mai personally painted a wall to demonstrate, because there was no practical experience in shabby chic operation before. So I tried it first in my own home. Old Mac spoke easily about his ideas, which must have been described so clearly and accurately by people who had traveled all over the world.

This old but trendy restaurant actually uses only a small part of the old mai collection, so maybe there will be another old mai soon-"it will be this kind of shabby chic and the old house in the original concession". It is entirely because I saw too many demolition that I was tempted to open a cafe and let the abandoned beauty come back to life. I think this is the main meaning of Laomai Cafe. Lao Mai has always said that he is a drifter, and he also likes to use vicissitudes to describe himself. When I drink that cup of "old wheat coffee" made with vodka, the first sip is tasteless, and the second sip is full of emotion. If I drink too much, maybe I will get drunk. I think I understand the drifting and vicissitudes of the old wheat who recommend this coffee.

Excerpt from the Bund Illustrated "regain the beauty of abandonment"