Interview with Nobuhiro Toriba, TORIBA COFFEE

chicken wingI am thinking about it, but I don't think I will approach it with coffee. No, coffee can be the standard, but coffee cannot be the star of the show.

What I am trying to say is, why would you pay 1,000 yen for a cup of coffee at a hotel coffee shop, for example? . It may be because you are meeting someone there, or because you like the atmosphere, or for some other reason than coffee. When coffee is served at the end of a meal in a French restaurant, the course of the meal is more important, and it is hard to talk about the coffee.

It is important to make good coffee, but coffee also connects "something" with "something". So, with that in mind, I hope to do something interesting with coffee.

chicken wingFirst of all, people are inevitably influenced by stereotypes, preconceived notions, and public images. For example, cream cheese iburigakko. It should not be a standard item, but nowadays it is everywhere. However, I sometimes think that if you were to put it on the menu, it wouldn't have to be on the menu in that way. If it was necessary after a lot of research, it would still be there. It is not the same as saying, "It is a coffee shop, so it must be Neapolitan. Therefore, for the monaka, I wanted to combine coffee with something outside of the stereotypes.

chicken wingIt's not surprising that there are some. However, I wanted to do coffee beans. But I wanted to do coffee beans, and I thought that if I were to open a cafe at the same time, I would definitely have to compromise on the coffee beans.

Cafes serve tea, orange juice, and other drinks to those who cannot drink coffee. For me, that is like going to the grocery store to buy meat. I would never ask a grocer, "I can't eat vegetables, do you have any meat?" But a café is different.

If I were to open a café, I would want to offer something other than coffee that is just as good as the coffee. I want to serve freshly squeezed orange juice, not concentrated orange juice. . Even tea, I would want to thoroughly research the tea leaves and serve them. ......When I think about it, I can't do it. . That's why we decided not to do tea and orange juice.

chicken wingWe had a lot of discussions with Shinichi Osawa, who created this place with us. A music bar has many elements, such as good speakers and a large collection of vinyl records. But the most important factors are "what kind of music to play" and "what to play. In fact, a typical music bar only produces music at the same level as that of a home music bar. That is why there is no selector.

It is fine if you are bartending on the side of making selections, but not the other way around. In the first place, a music bar should be a place where you can stand in front of the turntables and convey the sound to the customers. . That is why the music selector was chosen in the first place. It was only about a year ago that we hired an excellent bartender. . From there, the drinks got better and better, and there was a synergistic effect.

chicken wingMr. Osawa likes interior design. And he is essentially a creator, and I believe it is his job to go that far. So I left everything to him.

chicken wingYes . And also the management part. Well, I was very particular about the sound. Just as I said earlier, "We are a coffee shop, so we don't serve tea," I wanted to make the best sound possible if we were going to call ourselves a music bar. So, we installed what we thought was the best. We did not compromise on the price either.

chicken wing(He turns on The Beatles) As for The Beatles, they are selling well all over the world, so they are constantly being remastered. The one I'm playing now is the latest one, and don't you think each sound is clear? There is no noise at all.

chicken wingThis is a 15 kg roasting machine, the smallest industrial roasting machine. Most of the products are roasted in this machine.

chicken wingThe 1 kg machine is for baking samples and very high quality beans; beans that cost several tens of thousands of yen per kilo cannot fail, so they are baked in this machine. Espresso beans are baked in a 5 kg machine. Japan has an unstable climate. The air pressure is high and low, and the humidity is high and low. It is very difficult to maintain the ideal environment for baking. Therefore, we are very particular about the balance between the air going in and the air going out.

There are popular American roasting machines such as "Daytrich" and "Probut," but since they are American machines, they are made in places where the climate does not change as much. There are many places in Japan that use them, but they are not suitable for me.

chicken wingYes, I know, I know, I know. But there is nothing better than fresh coffee beans. In short, if you compare beans that are well roasted but not fresh with those that are not well roasted but fresh, the fresh ones taste better. So I think there are fewer mistakes.

chicken wingMy collecting style is to collect a large number of kokeshi dolls at first and then study them. Especially with kokeshi dolls, you can't tell what they are by looking at them one at a time, but by putting 10 or 20 together, you can see the differences.

chicken wingYes, Kokeshi is already . There are various circumstances (laughs).

chicken wingI don't collect, but I recently started going to Vietnam , and I have a few paintings.

chicken wingNo, it has nothing to do with that (laughs). I mean, I stopped visiting coffee farms a few years ago. Why? Because it's not a way to give back to the customers.

To begin with, you can't tell if coffee beans are good or bad until you bake them. It's hard to tell by looking at the farm. Also, even if for some reason the quality of coffee beans from a farm that I have become friends with is low, I would probably feel too much compassion for the farm and buy it from them. Given this, I thought it would be better to spend my time improving my own palate and educating my employees rather than going to the farms.

chicken wingAt first, a few of my friends who are business owners and I were talking about going to Vietnam for a study tour. We were going to visit companies over there and look for new business opportunities. It was during one of these trips that I discovered oil painting in Ho Chi Minh City.

chicken wingIt may seem surprising, but there is an oil painting street in Ho Chi Minh City, lined with stores selling oil paintings. Vietnamese people have a culture of decorating their houses with paintings. One day, I was talking with a shopkeeper on the street, and he said, "Bring me a picture and I will paint anything you want.

chicken wingThis is a drawing of Okame Soba, but I don't think the artist probably knows what it is (laughs). (laughs) . It is interesting to have them draw something that they probably don't know at all. Also, it is interesting to have them draw Japanese people. . like the subtle resemblance (laughs).

chicken wingI took a poster of the C.C. Girls and had it drawn. Recently, we have developed a relationship of trust, so I send the material first and pay for it later.

chicken wingThat's the point, isn't it? I realized that I have a textbook collection of things. Cars, motorcycles, watches, cameras, and audio equipment. . I don't find those things interesting anymore. For example, I often buy things to commemorate the completion of a job or the opening of a new store.

chicken wingWatches and such have become too expensive, and I'm starting to feel like an idiot.

chicken wingAudio equipment takes up a lot of space, and you can't listen to two units at once, at the same time. . I can't afford to increase the number of audio equipment. . I am more conscious of stocking up for when I open a second "music bar".

chicken wingThere are many things, but when I opened this restaurant, I did a tie-in article for a certain publication. At that time, I was not satisfied with the work. We decided to stop relying on existing media if we couldn't convey what we wanted to convey.

chicken wingI'm calling for someone who is genuinely interested in hearing what you have to say. Also, people who are good at expressing themselves.

chicken wingI had planned to have the stylist Koichiro Yamamoto appear in the show from the beginning. However, since I myself had already had an interview with him for "UOMO," I wanted to pair him with someone other than myself and Koichiro. I thought about who else I could work with, and I decided that it would be Fumiko Motoya, the president of APA Hotel. I made an offer to Ms. Motoya, and she readily agreed.

The dialogue was so vigorous that Koichiro could not speak, and Motoya-san's talk was amazing (laughs). Probably, everyone who meets that man will like him. He is just as he thinks he is, but there is no unpleasant feeling at all!

chicken wingAlso, Mr. Akihiro Ozaki of "Jinsou". Kamimune is a kelp shop in the Kansai region, and the restaurant Sotatsu, which Mr. Ozaki created, was the reference store for the creation of Triva Coffee. I went there many times. The influence of this shop was quite large. So, I decided to take this opportunity to invite him.

The interview was scheduled for 3:00 p.m., but about 30 minutes before that, I received a phone call from a good friend of mine, a geisha in Shinbashi, who suddenly said, "You have an interview at 3:00 p.m. today, don't you? I just got a call from Mr. Ozaki at Zennya (a zori shop) and he gave me a pair of zori" (laughs). (Laughs.) I later learned that Mr. Ozaki was also famous in the Hanayagi world. When I went to Osaka, he was the first person people in that area would go to greet him.

There is the most prestigious club in Ginza, and it seems that Mr. Ozaki goes there, and right after the interview article was uploaded, the girl at the club contacted me and asked, "Why are you interviewing Mr. Ozaki? I explained to her how it happened and she said, "I'm with him now. I explained to her how it happened and she said, "Let's have dinner together sometime. In fact, I went out for dinner with Mr. Ozaki after that, and on the way home, he said, "I often stop by your restaurant, Toba-san. He said, "This restaurant has something in common with my restaurant," to which I replied, "No, it's a rip-off! (laughs).

chicken wingNot so much these days, but I guess there are more of them than in other places. What I have learned recently is that each person has his/her own base. In my case, when I was a student, it was Shibuya, then Ginza, and now I go back and forth between Ginza and Azabujuban. For example, I have not been to Yoyogi Uehara very often. . So it is hard for me to understand how people who live there feel. . When I think about it, I feel like I need to move regularly. So maybe it is better not to buy a house. . I feel that if I buy one, my range of activities will be limited.

chicken wingTo be honest, there was a long period of time when I could not do anything. . Rather, because of my father's influence, I was uncomfortable with the word "create.

When I build a house, I like to start with "what does it mean to build a house? But my father, on the other hand, starts by looking at catalogs of houses to be built on his land and taking pictures taken around the world and saying, "This is the way I want it. . It's not like building a house from scratch, it's more like assembling a plastic model. To put it more simply, it is like adding a little sugar to store-bought mayonnaise and saying, "That's my taste! It's just like taking mayonnaise on the market and adding a little sugar to it and saying, "That's my flavor! . There is no question about the eggs, or whether it is necessary to use eggs in the first place.

I did not plan to ask my father to participate in the project, but he told me to make the logo first when we were building this shop. The building had not yet been constructed, and the details of what we would do at the restaurant had not yet been decided. When I asked him about it, he told me that there were many things that would be decided from there. Furthermore, the way the logo was created was to have a designer draw a hundred pictures, choose the best ones, and then work out the details. For me, I was wondering whether a logo was even necessary in the first place, and even if it was, how could it be made into a logo? Even if a logo was necessary, I would choose the person I wanted to use for this project. It was totally different (laughs).

chicken wingMen are especially dizzy, aren't they? They even go on a journey of self-discovery (laughs). If they go to India to become enlightened, then all Indians are enlightened. But it is interesting because I would go to India without realizing it. In that sense, of course it will take time. In the first place, I would rather do what I want to do and not be recognized than do what I don't want to do and be recognized for it. That way, I can work harder.

chicken wingWell, I haven't seen it for that long (laughs). But I think of Ginza as a district of innovation. It is a place where innovative things can be done, and it is a place that accepts them with open arms. However, everyone is somewhat reserved because it is Ginza.

Shiseido is still running Hanatsubaki and has retained its galleries. I think this is an example of how "Ginza tradition" and "innovation" are successfully fused together.

. I also feel that the younger generation is reaching the end of their patience. This is exactly the case with nightclubs, etc. Many young people feel that the restaurants I mentioned earlier are too prestigious and uncomfortable. For these people, Roppongi is better in terms of cost-effectiveness. In the first place, a town like Ginza is built on the principle of people putting up with each other. Now, however, the customers have reached their limit. Perhaps the Japanese people's strange feelings of "cheap is virtuous" and "convenience is important" have gone too far. Nowadays, "fast fashion" has become "good" instead of "fast fashion" is "good. If you are going to drink the same amount of alcohol, it is important to keep the cost down.

We are not in Ginza because we can pay our rent. There are reasons why we have to be in Ginza. I think Ginza should be a place for people who want to make their own statement. From now on, I would like to see more people like that, and for Ginza to become a "collection of individual stores" like it used to be. That would be the most interesting.