‘Coffee only’ reads the sign outside Café de l’Ambre, which has been keeping the Ginza hordes well caffeinated since 1948. Remarkably, it’s still run by the same man – Ichiro Sekiguchi, who turned 102 this May. A living legend in Japan’s coffee community, Mr Sekiguchi named his shop after the colour amber because ‘it’s the ideal shade of coffee, of course’.
Working as a sound engineer in the pre-war movie industry, Sekiguchi used to casually treat his colleagues to home-brewed coffee. His blends turned out to be fine enough to both charm his co-workers and make their creator reconsider his career path. A coffee nerd during his student years, Sekiguchi tells us he often visited bean wholesalers for fun, gradually picking up the knowledge that would become the basis of his business.
But setting up a coffee shop was no simple task after the war: Sekiguchi long struggled to obtain a license for his place, eventually securing the right to open an ‘alkaloid laboratory’ – which, after some wheeling and dealing, he transformed into Café de l’Ambre.
Now, this venerable establishment offers almost 50 different varieties of Joe, including brews made of aged beans that have been left to mature for at least a decade. And although beans are his true passion – ‘Make no mistake: how they are roasted is what determines a coffee’s flavour,’ he stresses – Sekiguchi thinks of coffee-sipping as a comprehensive experience. This attitude is what drove him to design his own roaster, mill, pots and cups, all of which can be admired at l’Ambre.
While somewhat concerned about the current state of the coffee industry – ‘The market has turned to mass production and proper beans are becoming hard to find’ – the pipe-smoking master isn’t about to give up. He’s happy about the ongoing revaluation of quality coffee, and equally pleased to share the secret to his longevity: ‘It’s about not getting stressed out,’ he says. ‘You know, the stress-alleviating qualities of coffee have been well documented.’
Photos by Yuki Nakamura