candidanimal: Nylon Cafe x Tokyo

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Nylon Cafe x Tokyo

In a follow up to the little segment I did on an expensive (but totally worth it) afternoon tea at the Bulgari cafe in Ginza, my friend and companion in all things both fashionable and Japanese, suggested we offset our day with a cheap dinner at the Nylon Cafe in Harajuku.

Nylon magazine, for those of you who don't know, is an American fashion magazine, whose Japanese counterpart, Nylon Japan, is 1000 x cooler. No, it is not just the American magazine translated into Japanese. They have a totally different layout, and do their own original photoshoots and styling. I've had a subscription to Nylon Japan for almost six years.

Now, it might seem kind of weird that a magazine has its own cafe, but let me reiterate that almost ALL reputable brands in Japan, whether they be clothing brands, jewelry, magazines, etc, have some sort of food establishment. This provides them yet another opportunity to build their public image. Marketing genius.

Now let's talk about the cafe. First of all, let me say this place was hard to find. Even though we had a map and a smart phone we damn near got lost. I thought I knew Harajuku, until we wondered behind the back ally of a car dealership and found this nondescript building. At least their sign was big enough.

See the door at the bottom left? That is not the entrance. The entrance is actually around the building, up an outdoor staircase, and around the patio on the rooftop terrace. Now try depicting that on a map. Yeah.

The menu: Food, Alcoholic Drinks, and Coffee

Well, I at least was happy to see that everything was filled with the Nylon Brand! We got to girl-out and take lots of pictures here. Overall, the food was just okay, nothing that Anthony Bourdain would rave about. The atmosphere was pretty cool, as was the fact that they serve campari, but the best part was all the Nylon magazines we got to read! Magazines from all over the world!