These days, most neighborhoods are slathered with signs like this, banning smoking just about everywhere—on the street, at the train station and inside all offices/restaurants*—but there are few militantly defiant hold-outs, like this coffee shop I discovered yesterday in Ginza:
Welcome to the Ranzu, a step back in time to when men wore bowler hats, coffee shops could serve you a shot with your cuppa, and all the best doctors recommended tobacco as a pick-me-up.
This place is unapologetically all smoking, all the time, and in case you didn’t sense that from the cloud of tobacco smoke wafting from the open door…
…do not be under any illusions that there’s a non-smoking section.
But before you run away screaming, consider this:
When you order an iced caffe latte to go, expecting a feeble cold Americano with milk, you get THIS instead: a shot of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted over ice, with a blanket of whipped cream so thick and fresh it doesn’t need sugar to make it sweet. Clearly, they have no idea what a latte is, but I’m glad they don’t!
*Ironically, in places like the red light district of Kabukicho, smoking is banned outdoors, but universally allowed inside clubs GO FIGURE.
If you’d like to brave the Ranzu’s retro carcinogenic atmosphere for the best caffe not-latte in the world, here’s where it is.
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
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