Big Small Coffee Opens Second Branch in Jingshan-Adjacent Hutong
Big Small Coffee ain't so little anymore.
What
started as an aptly named Xiang'er Hutong café that could hardly fit
one counter and a handful of tables and chairs, has now grown into a
successful enough brand to open a second branch near Jingshan Park, with
a third store on the way in the CBD to open later this fall. That
success can mostly be attributed to founder Zhang Yipeng. She's a soft-spoken but diligent coffee enthusiast who has outfitted her café with unique items like rooibos tea
that she brought back from a trip to South Africa. On top of that, she
has sold those unique leaves at other cafés around town and promotes the
opening of those new venues on her social media, promoting a
refreshingly collaborative – rather than bitterly competitive – spirit.
Patrons take it easy at Big Small Coffee's bar
Her
Jingshan Park-adjacent Big Small branch opened on Saturday (Aug 26;
it's situated in Shatan Hutong off Jingshan East Street). When we
stopped by, the place was packed with patrons not only sipping old Big
Small favorites like rooibos and comparatively conventional
café fare like Americanos and Ethiopian and Yunnan coffee, but also new
items like the naturally sweet honeybush latte (RMB 25).
The
place felt as much like a lounge as a café that day, in part thanks to
the crowd's enthused vibe but also due to the menu's new boozy creations
like rooibos ciders (RMB
30 per bottle and available in both sweet and dry varieties; tasting
both of apple and the exotic sweetness of the South African tea). The
new honeybush latte's flavor is also available in cider form (again, RMB
30 per bottle and available in dry and sweet options). We're hoping
those party vibes can be found most evenings at this new Big Small, so
that it can be a café by day and a lounge at night.
The party vibes were obvious at the Aug. 26 opening
This
new café is also nearly twice as big as the original Big Small,
swapping a snuggly coziness in favor of a more breezy space, perfect for
quickly grabbing a takeaway from the bar or for cracking open your
laptop for a long session of caffeine-fueled work.
It's a success overall, and a welcome artisanal addition to a quiet hutong that has an exciting, untapped, lao-Beijing
quality. Based on this, we can't wait to see what future twists Zhang
will give to the Big Small brand when she opens her CBD café in the
coming weeks because she's already set the bar high with her two hutong
cafés.
Big Small Coffee (Jingshan Park)
16 Shatan Hutong (off Jingshan East Street; east of Beihai and Jingshan parks)
沙滩后街16号
Photos courtesy of Big Small Coffee
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