Bear Pond Espresso

Katsu Tanaka spent eighteen years pulling shots in New York before moving back to Tokyo and opening this narrow Shimokitazawa counter in 2009. He still runs the espresso machine himself, letting no one else touch it, on the reasoning that consistency comes from one pair of hands doing the same motion every single time, and photography inside the shop is discouraged so the room stays focused on the cup rather than the camera.

The signature order is the Angel Stain, a dense, syrupy shot built to be drunk in one motion rather than sipped, and then there's the other reason people make the trip out to Shimokitazawa: the Dirty. Tanaka created it here, and it has since traveled to coffee shops around the world, but this is where it started. There's no ice; hot espresso is extracted directly into cold milk and left unstirred, forming distinct layers and a flavor that shifts as it's drunk, the intensity of the espresso leading before the cold milk comes forward and the two slowly come together. Shimokitazawa itself is a maze of secondhand clothing stores and live music venues, and Bear Pond's tiny, stand up counter fits that scrappy, independent character better than almost anywhere else in the neighborhood.