A journalist and a publicist banded together and launched a cafeteria on a reformed newsstand
This is one of those ideas that Grão Especial loves: mixing coffee with literature. Combo Café & Cultura is a very unusual cafeteria. To begin with, the cousins Lucas, 27, and Thiago Alves, 36, joined forces and decided to buy and renovate a newsstand established more than 60 years ago in the Jardins district of São Paulo, Brazil. “It’s the oldest newsstand on Augusta Street,” says Lucas.
Working with 10 of the most prestigious publishers in the country, such as 34, Aleph, Morro Branco, V&R and Ubu, among others, Combo Café & Cultura also offers a collection of used books (about 10% of the total) which partners have made in the city’s used book stores for several years and also part of their personal collection. The prices of used books start at $ 5 and the rarities have salty prices, as it could not be. New books, however, are sold at cover prices.
Combo Café
“The curatorship is all ours and the proposal is to create an environment where anyone who is passing the sidewalk can interact with the books. And the part that I like the most is the possibility of talking to the client and presenting new stories,” he confesses.
Partnership with Catarina Coffee & Love
Next to the stand is a coffee cart run by two baristas from Catarina Coffee & Love, also responsible for the coffee roasted coffee that can be tasted at home.
Three blends are available: Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Barista Bianca Mendes explained that the coffees were roasted in a unique way, thinking about the writing of each author. “In this way, Kafka is a stronger coffee, representing the obscurity of his writing. Virginia coffee comes with a balance between sweetness and acidity, like her texts, and Joyce, his exoticism, with a more fruity coffee,” he explains.
Combo Café
Combo Café
In addition to the espresso, they use two more methods of preparation: the coarse coffee in the new Melitta and the Aeropress. Located just outside schools, the place is packed with children flipping through books and tasting Bean to Bar chocolates from Casa Lasevicius or Luisa Abram.
As the point of sale is everything in the success of a cafeteria, the bet of the young people seems more than the right one. They are already selling about 100 cups of coffee a day. “I know we did the right thing when the end of the day arrives and the people crowd the sidewalk, enjoying our little place to read a book, sipping coffee or a bar of chocolate. I feel very honored,” he finishes.
Combo Café
Combo Café & Cultura
Alameda Franca, 1154, Jardim Paulista
Opens from Monday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. www.estandevirtual/combocc (books only)
It is possible to order the books and cups of coffee also through their Instagram account: combocafecultura
