Kafenion is a specialty coffee bar in Amsterdam — the exterior at night reads as a warm cavity in a dark red-brick building: the 'SPECIALTY COFFEE BAR KAFENION AMSTERDAM' board above the entrance, the open door with fairy lights strung inside, the plants in the threshold. The red shutters on either side are the kind of Dutch domestic detail that appears without intention and reads as entirely correct. Inside: a counter, espresso equipment, bar stools, more plants, the sound of a small room that takes coffee seriously. The name suggests a Greek-inflected sensibility — kafenion being the Greek word for a neighbourhood coffee house — and the atmosphere follows the logic: this is a coffee bar that prioritises the quality of the pause over the velocity of the transaction.
De Pijp, Amsterdam, Netherlands