Analog

So, if you think another language exchange meeting with my friend means another cafe adventure, you're right. Today was my turn to pick the cafe and our destination was Ebisu. As you may recall from the previous posts, we'd decided to start avoiding places that allowed smoking. But all the cool looking cafes that looked like we could chill for a while were smoking. Not even a nonsmoking section! What to do?

Well, what I decided was to pick two places and if one was too smoky, hopefully the other would be okay. I chose two, Ark and Analog, that were pretty close to each other and were actually run by the same company. After meeting my friend and taking a peek at the two places, we settled on Analog.

Analog is on the 4th floor of a building not far from the station, just off the main road. After climbing up four flights of stairs, we entered a pretty snazzy area. The lighting was dim, though not too dark, and it felt a bit like walking into an attic filled with old furniture. (Being as how this place, along with Ark and a few other places in Tokyo, are run by Attic, I'm sure this atmosphere was by design.) It was hard to choose where to sit because the seating areas were all so different. There even appeared to be "rooms" or separated areas. We went with some big comfy chairs that were in the section a couple stairs higher than the first bit.

The place wasn't crowded at all, a few couples or random people here and there, so the smoke wasn't really an issue. Once in a while when the people sat kind of near us lit up a cigarette, it got a bit smelly, but nothing worth getting irritated with. Also, with it not being so crowded, it wasn't noisy either. Although that might also be due to the design itself, or the fact that it was just that type of cafe. I even spotted one girl napping in one of the oversized arm chairs. If I had been there alone, I might have been tempted to do the same.

As for the drinks, I went with a cinnamon cappuccino and my friend went with a cafe latte. They took a little while to come out. Not excessively so, but they took long enough for me to notice. But once the drinks were brought out and placed on the table, I decided the time spent waiting was definitely worth it. The drinks were beautiful. The cappuccino was piled high with froth and cinnamon, and the latte had a really lovely design in it. I don't know about the latte in terms of taste, but the cappuccino was really good.

So, the final verdict here is that, if I hung out in Ebisu, I would come here often. I'd have some coffee and probably the occasional nap. But this was probably my second or third time in the area after living more than two years in Tokyo. So as it is, if I'm in the area again, I'll probably check out Ark instead.

Order: Cappuccino (¥650, I think)
Review: I wouldn't mind if this became a regular hangout.

Website: http://www.atticroom.jp/analog-ebisu/
Access: Ebisu station. (2minutes on foot)
Address: 1-8-3 Ebisuminami (4F), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan