Tokyo 東京 Espresso エスプレッソ

Shichimencho Café >>MAP 5-16-1 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku TEL: 03-5467-3939 東京都港区南青山5-16-1青山ビル 2F So there's no espresso and the coffee sucks. Okay, but Shichimencho serves a mean green curry and is such a refreshingly real and relaxing cafe/bar amidst uptight Omotesando spots that this place should be on everybody's list. The owner has over 1500 LPs and keeps the music loud.

Lili Marleen >>MAP 2-8-2 Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku TEL: 03-3724-0319 東京都目黒区自由が丘 2-8-2 A quirky but ultimately winsome new café in Jiyugaoka’s dated “Little Venice.” The owner is a charming woman with some connection to Germany (I didn’t ask). The menu is full of sausages and pretzels and she has two beers on tap (one from Germany I failed to recognize and the other brewed in German style by a microbrewer here in Japan ). The espresso beans are imported courtesy of LaVazza and the quality suffers as a result. Click here for my rant on the senselessness of importing roasted beans. However, I get the feeling that the owner is getting to know her espresso machine, a gorgeous Carimali Kicco 1, and there are worse shots being pulled in Tokyo . My advice: skip the espresso for now and have a beer on the patio by the “canal.”

deborah >>MAP 2-6-6 Sangenjaya, Setagaya-ku TEL: 03-3422-2653 東京都世田谷区三軒茶屋 2-6-6 井筒屋ビル　 Another hipper-than-thou Tokyo café with the exception that espresso is passable here.

Unice >>MAP 1-34-17 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku Za HOUSE Bldg. B1 TEL: 03-5459-8631 東京都渋谷区恵比寿西1-34-17 Za HOUSE ビルB1 Sure, the place stays open until 5:00 a.m. , but with espresso that's pure drek, it makes no difference. The cafe's perpetually smoky too.

Verde >>MAP 1-20-8 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku TEL: 03-3496-1692 東京都渋谷区恵比寿西 1-20-8 Not for the dilettante, Verde is an Old School Tokyo cafe presided over by a master who has exacting standards when it comes to the right pour. To give you an idea: he used to sell his homemade and custom-designed (for optimal drip) burlap filter (pictured above) to customers. But, after learning that users weren't cleaning the filter properly, he ceased all sales! Don't be afraid, he's a convivial man who will wax poetic on coffee and its current state if prodded. Warning: no espresso here so don't even ask!

Café Delight >>MAP 1-24-12, Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, 東京都渋谷区恵比寿1-24-12 TEL: 03-3444-1818 Excellent bar/restaurant with a deft hand at food and mixed drinks (had the best-tasting vodka tonic, or, I should say, tonics, in many a moon). Espresso is only slightly better than marginal (which is sad because Cafe Delight has all the right tools: grinder, two-group machine, etc.).

Pelle’s Espresso >>MAP 3-1-4 Kanda, Ogawa-cho, Chiyoda-ku TEL: 03-5283-0332 千代田区神田小川町 3-1-4 [UPDATE: Pelle's is permanently closed for business. Its last day was on August 25, 2009. According to the manager, there are no current plans to reopen.] I’m enamored of this place. It’s espresso in Tokyo by way of Melbourne , Australia . The owner is Japanese and splits his time between the two cities. A gorgeous Faema Legend E61 is the shop’s pride and joy and it’s easy to see why. Faema re-introduced this machine in 2001 (it first came to market in 1961). (See this fascinating article on coffeegeek.com by Paul Pratt documenting his own efforts to restore a Faema.) Pelle’s beans are roasted by a father of one of the employees. His espresso blend, although largely a secret, consists largely of some Brazil and Sumatra Mandheling. (That’s as much info as I could get!) The staff is a gregarious bunch and matches macchinesti’s seriousness when ...

Ura >>MAP 1-17-1 Ebisu-Nishi, Shibuya-ku TEL: 03-5489-1117 東京都渋谷区恵比寿西1-17-1 A gorgeous Brasilia espresso machine sits behind the bar and it's put to expert use. Beans are ground fresh for each order. This is an extremely proficient operation with food and espresso at a very high level. It's also something of the gaijin scene for weekend brunch (but not obnoxiously so).

Analog >>MAP 1-8-3 4F Ebisu-Minami, Shibuya-ku TEL: 03-3760-0955 渋谷区恵比寿南 1-8-3 4F There is nothing to recommend on the espresso front here. Analog relies on a super-automatic machine and results are predictably disappointing. However, there is much to recommend about the café in terms of atmosphere and vibe. It’s a unique space if you can tolerate the cigarette smoke and the hand-job parlor two floors below.