TASTE Shop
Add: 105, Building 3, Lane 210 Taikang Road
Tel: 18221041418
Hours: 12:30-8:30pm (closed on Mon)
Website: www.taste-shop.com
Price: [coffee] 12-99RMB
Visited: Jan 2016
When I was wandering the tiny alleys of Tianzifang a few weeks ago, my attention was caught by this quietly stylish shop near the entrance of lane 210. “TASTE Shop”, it says. I went in for a quick round and was impressed by its selection of homeware, accessories, fragrance, tools, and other pretty knickknacks, mostly imported from Europe and Japan. I had no idea at the time that I would soon be introduced to the owners of this place via a mutual friend. “They are opening a cafe right upstairs and need pastries,” explained the friend, “You guys should talk.”
某次在田子坊閒逛時發現了一家很漂亮的店，叫做 TASTE Shop。不大的空間裏陳列了各式各樣有型的雜貨，大部分好像都是從歐洲和日本挑選來的。心裏想著這家店主品味真好，沒想到兩周後就通過朋友介紹認識了。“他們樓上要開咖啡店，想跟你討論下甜點，” 朋友是這麽跟我說的，“你們聊聊吧。”
So I came back on a sunny day to meet shop owner Yutaka, a fashion designer-turn-visual merchandiser, originally from Tokyo but has lived in Shanghai for over 10 years. Together him and his Chinese Canadian wife Viko (photographer by profession) started TASTE Shop back in 2013. Since then, the space has evolved to what it is now – a select shop, an exhibition space, and most recently, a cafe.
所以我挑了個陽光明媚的日子回到 TASTE Shop，和店主之一的 Yutaka 碰了面。他是東京人，不過在上海住了10年，加上母親是上海人，中文說起來極順（順到我一度以爲他是個取了日本名字的中國人）。做視覺設計的他和攝影師太太 Viko 兩人一起在 2013 年開了 TASTE Shop，本來是家選品店＋展覽空間，然後就在這個月，又多了個咖啡館的角色。
The newly-opened cafe has so many chic details to notice. The menu, for example, is handmade – and by handmade, I mean even the paper itself is made by their staff.
這裏有太多漂亮的細節。比如說菜單是手工做的，而且真的是連紙本身都是店員自己做的，非常用心。
Manning the cafe counter is Yutaka and his colleague Patrick. Both trained with Mr. A of Shinzan Mono (a coffee shop in the French Concession), but Yutaka specializes in hand drip coffee while Patrick does the espresso-based variations.
在吧台煮咖啡的有 Yutaka 和 Patrick，兩人都是從 “新參者” 咖啡店主理人小A那裏學的，不過 Yutaka 做手沖，Patrick做意式，一人一台機器玩的很開心。“新參者” 這家咖啡店我倒是第一次聽說，下次有機會去看看。
Here’s my cup of Yirgacheffe (39 RMB), served with two small coffee sablé.
我的耶加雪菲（39元）和兩塊咖啡小餅乾一起上桌，很可愛。Yutaka 說沒有甜點搭配咖啡的話嘴巴會無聊，我完全同意。
But let’s back up a bit and take a look at TASTE Shop in its entirety. The first floor is a select shop, displaying products like fragrance from Mad et Len and Tom Dixon, ceramics from Kühn Keramik, floral scissors from Kaneshin, brush tools from Redecker, notebooks from POSTALCO, jewelry from Bjorg, watering cans from Haws…seemingly random, but in fact carefully curated.
退一步看看 TASTE shop 的一樓，選品店漂亮的陳列著 Mad et Len 和 Tom Dixon 的香氛、Kühn Keramik 的陶藝品、兼進花藝剪、Redecker 刷子、POSTALCO 筆記本、Bjorg 首飾、Haws 澆花壺…似乎雜七雜八，但真的每個都是精挑細選而來的。
And upstairs, other than the cafe space which I’ve already shown you, are two exhibition areas. The first is white and bright like this:
往二樓走，除了有剛才介紹過的咖啡館，還有兩個展覽空間。第一個以白色調爲主，設計乾淨簡潔：
Walk pass it, the cafe.
然後就是咖啡館。
Turn right, the second exhibition area, dark and sober, very Japanese in style. On the day of my visit, the exhibition was on Naoya Arakawa from Japan’s Seikosha Glass Studio.
往右，是第二個展覽空間，暗色調，氣氛相對莊重。我去的那天展的是日本手工玻璃師荒川尚的作品，不少東西都已經被客人訂掉了，看來相當熱門啊。
It’s a shop, it’s a cafe, it’s an exhibition space.The funny thing about coming to the TASTE Shop is that I somehow always end up staying way longer than expected, chatting for hours with the people here. We’ve shared coffee, matcha latte, wine, champagne…and of course, pastries. It’s all very casual and freestyle, I love it. Come and stay a while.
每次我來 TASTE Shop 總是待上很久，跟店裏的人邊喝著咖啡/葡萄酒/香槟/抹茶拿鐵邊聊天，偶而也帶自己的甜點過來分享。輕松隨興，是我最愛的風格。來看看吧，說不定你也會喜歡上這裏。
TASTE Shop
地址：泰康路210弄3號樓105室
電話：18221041418
營業時間：12:30-8:30pm（周一休）
網站：www.taste-shop.com
價位：咖啡12-99元
造訪：2016年1月