Café Lomi, Paris

We must have visited at least ten cafés in Paris (not traditional French cafés serving cups of dark roast but artisanal cafés serving specialty coffee) in the span of a few days. And of these ten, there was only one café which we returned to again, and that’s Café Lomi.

Its location in the 18th arrondissement adds colour: here you may find the African district of Goutte d’Or and their ethnic market, Marché Barbès. No Gucci or Louis Vuitton shops here nor the wealthy Chinese mainlanders who raid them.

Instead what you get is a faux abandoned warehouse look — concrete walls, peeling paint, metal beams, even an old leather sofa or two. One of the coffee tables is an ancient luggage case – vintage vogue, perhaps? But décor aside, we were here for the coffee.

Café Lomi is a Franco-Australian collaboration between Aleaume Paturle and Paul Arnephy. Aleaume, who first cut his teeth making espressos in San Diego, had previously co-owned Alto Cafe (a mobile cafe concept that we encountered first-hand in front of Galeries Lafayette) before opening Café Lomi, so he’s considered one of the pioneers of the specialty coffee scene in Paris.

(Lomi is Aleaume’s nickname as a kid; that’s a cute way of celebrating one’s childhood.)

During our first visit, we had excellent coffee brewed by Aleaume’s beautiful wife, Maribel Cruz López. While busy attending to all her customers, she found time to catch up with regulars and get to know new customers like us.

Three of the cafes we later visited in Canal St Martin neighbourhood — Ten Belles, Craft and Tuck Shop — were her recommendations. Maribel even encouraged us to take a look at their roastery, which was very nice of her.

One of my favourite parts of the entire Café Lomi experience was watching their Japanese pastry chef, Kana Izutani, kneading dough and pulling trays of beautiful and wonderful-smelling treats from the oven. Kana had previously worked at William Ledeuil’s Ze Kitchen Gallery and her skill showed with every bite of our pastries.

Co-owner Paul was at Café Lomi when we dropped by a second time. The Australian roaster is an experienced barista, having won awards for his latte art. He told us he would usually roast the beans during their days off, and invited us to drop by and have a look if we were free.

Unfortunately this trip to Paris was a brief one, but we will definitely be back. Not only for the aroma of good coffee, but for that rare human touch we don’t see everywhere.

When we visited Ten Belles a day or two later, who did we bumped into but Aleaume, Maribel and Kana dropping by for a coffee and to say hi to the baristas there. It may be winter in Paris yet there is more here than simply coffee to warm our hearts.

在巴黎的一星期裡，除了搭火車到凡爾賽宮玩了一天外，
其他的時候我們都留在巴黎市；不是找東西吃，就是泡咖啡館。
而所到訪過的十家咖啡館裡頭，
有一家是我們很喜歡而且去了兩次的；那就是Café Lomi。
（其實Ten Belles我也想再回去，可惜沒時間。）
有別於一般傳統法式咖啡館所提供的商業咖啡，
這家位於黑人區的Café Lomi可說是近幾年來咖啡革命的先鋒。
除了精選來自世界各地的豆子外和自家烘焙外，
這裡還開班授課，提供專業的培訓課程。

會喜歡上這裡，除了環境不錯和咖啡好喝外，
親切的工作人員和他們對咖啡的熱誠也是原因之一。
記得我第一次到訪時，拍照拍得把整壺咖啡都倒翻了，讓我尷尬的無地自容。
不過店員和老闆都很友善，幫我們清理后，閒暇時還來跟我們聊天。
當得知我們喜歡泡咖啡館后，還推薦了幾家她們喜歡的咖啡館，
（十家咖啡館裡頭，有三家是他們介紹的。）
並且歡迎我們到後頭去參觀他們的工作坊。
而第二次到訪時，正逢烘焙師也在，
這位熱情的烘焙師告訴我們他一般都在週休時烘焙豆子，
如果我們有時間的話可以去看看。
可惜這次呆在巴黎的時間太短了，
無法去參觀豆子的烘焙過程，不然一定很有趣。
如果下次有機會再到巴黎遊玩，我們一定要再回去Café Lomi；
除了芳香的咖啡；這裡還有的，是那濃濃的人情味。

Café Lomi
3 ter Rue Marcadet, 75018 Paris, France
Wed-Sun 10am-7pm / Mon-Tue closed
+33-9-8039-5624
www.cafelomi.com