Photo: Jinnawat Borihankijanan ENJOY THE SIP OF SPECIALTY COFFEE AND THE COZY VIBES OF THIS NEW CAFÉ IN ARI, DESIGNED BY PARTY / SPACE / DESIGN
TEXT: PRATARN TEERATADA
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN EXCEPT AS NOTED
(For Thai, press here)
“There’s a new cafe that just opened.”
“Where?”
“Ari.”
“Ari? That’s bold.”
The task that Suparat Chinathaworn, a somewhat professional cafe designer from party / space / design, needs to undertake with NANA Coffee Roasters Ari and the one-rai space it occupies, is to steal the spotlight from being amidst Ari quarter’s prolific and highly competitive cafe scene. p / s / d was in charge of the NANA cafe brand’s two previous branches, Ekamai-Ramindra and the famous NANA HUNTER. “With Ari’s branch, when I saw the site and immediately knew that it was a fifty-year-old house, the idea that came to mind was that this isn’t something we get to come across so often in this day and age. There’s something charming and lovely about this old house. You feel relaxed being inside the space and you want to spend time here, enjoying the garden, so I didn’t do much in terms of decoration. I paid extra attention to the wood patterns and added small windows and some extensions,” Suparat explained the idea behind the design.
p / s / d has always been steadfast about their expertise in restaurant and cafe design. “When I started the office, I thought that this would be the genre we wanted to master. Some design offices do all types of projects and there’s us who specialize in restaurants and cafes. I’m an architect, and I do graphic design. I understand branding from experiences gained in advertising. My family opened a restaurant. Everything came together when I opened the office and intended for us to have this expertise in cafes and restaurants. After four to five years of practice, we’ve reached the point where we get to work on projects with bigger scales. We did the food court for Central World, condominium projects for Sansiri, exhibitions for TCDC. Everything ramified and we got lost in it. When we reached our seventh year, I set a new direction that cafes would be our expertise. I took a one-month hiatus from work to learn about coffee, I even bought a coffee-making machine, and all the equipment that every cafe has with the folks at NANA’s help. Working with NANA is like working with my mentors.”
Nannapat Mallikamal is a young entrepreneur. She studied marketing in England and was planning to return after graduation, which would be around the time when the Ari cafe finished the construction. But then COVID hit, causing her to witness every process of the making of NANA Ari. “Cafes have always been my interest. When I was in London, my favorite one was Ozone, the cafe near my house on Old Street. My father has always been a fan of NANA and he was very close with the two founders. They’re like family. They have this real passion for coffee and they finally had this idea of opening a cafe together.”
After deciding that the fifty-year-old house in Ari would be the home to NANA Ari, the designer and owners agreed on the ‘family and friends’ concept. The design tells a story through the NANA brand with Warong Chalanuchpong and Kanda Thochampa as the founders. “The NANA logo comes from a process in coffee roasting where we need to check the consistency of the coffee by inspecting the molecules of the grinder beans to see if the quality is okay.” The logo is essentially the brand’s DNA.
Photo: Jinnawat Borihankijanan
For coffee lovers, this place is like a home. They come in and feel relaxed and everything moves at a slower pace. If you’re not a big fan of coffee, they have many other drinks to offer. If you’re a specialty coffee buff, this is the place to be. For an avid cafe hopper or casual coffee drinker, the mainstream drinks here are just as satisfying. Even the playlists of songs being played at the cafe are curated to perfect the vibe and complement the meticulously prepared coffee. “Seeing so many people love the place, it’s quite reassuring. I feel like this isn’t the end and there’s so much more to learn. I’m learning every day. There are always new things for me to get to know and understand. When it’s my own business, I’ve come to realize that every detail is important.”
In Suparat’s opinion, the cafe business in Thailand is only budding. “In South Korea, you see ten people walking and only two without a coffee in their hands. In Thailand, it’s five out of ten. There are half of the people who don’t drink coffee. Thai people are characteristically fun and we always find something to drink. Drinking alcohol in broad daylight would be a bit too much but coffee can always keep you awake and fresh. We’ve known about specialty coffee for less than ten years and now with the headwater now running more smoothly and the demands growing, it’s only natural to see the number of cafes growing. What’s distinctive about NANA is that they’re the real deal. They’re the perfect combination of a roaster speed bar, slow bar and the image of this family and friends brand.”
NANA is an admirable example of people with passion and real understanding in the coffee business. By pairing that up with a designer with similar drive and ability, the final result is the cafe representing the creators of outstanding coffee that resonates with the consumers’ demand and expectations. We will be seeing more brands entering the playing field from now on, particularly the stand-alone cafes with strong concepts and specialty coffees. In this economy, what’s a better business where you have the potential to thrive and get paid in cash than a cafe, right?
partyspacedesign.com
fb.com/partyspacedesign
fb.com/nanacoffeeroastersari