The Basement Cafe, part of Coffee Shop Cafe Independents, stands out with its edgy and grungy basement design. This unique ambiance creates a distinctive atmosphere, inviting patrons to enjoy their coffee in a space that celebrates underground creativity and urban culture.

Photography by Andrew Chung

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“Nothing says rustic-cool quite like exposed brickwork, mosaic tiling and wooden tables in the basement of a 1920s building, but it’s not something you expect to find in Kyoto.

Cafe Independants is a short walk from Kawaramachi station and just off the main shopping arcade. It is the perfect place to escape Kyoto’s busy streets for lunch or evening drinks.

Now Art Complex 1928, the building began life as the regional office for Osaka’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. Its Art-Deco inspired architecture has led it to be designated a Tangible Cultural Property”

A strange staircase made __of small colorful mosaics and a specially made shelf for flyersannouncing concerts, exhibitions and performances, lead you to a heavy dark wood door. Behind it lies the Independants Cafe, well known in the underground fauna and artistic bohemia of Kyoto, this cafe / restaurant will surprise many. 

At the back there is a tiny shop where you can buy CDs and other small items created by local artists, have a look round if it’s open, even if it is just to see the havoc that prevails! The vast room with dark corners, the cold tiles that are crossed by a thousand colors during the day, depending on the course of the sun, waiters, who are playful and divinely beautiful fight in the kitchen or with your meal behind the bar, all these thing are what make the special and unclassifiable charm of the Independants cafe.

Japan Experience