First Look: Natooke’s New Digs in Courtyard 46

First Look: Natooke’s New Digs in Fangjia-Adjacent Courtyard 46

Amber De La Haye | Jan 19, 2018 1:00 pm | Add a comment | 881 reads

Dongcheng’s never-settling dust has been disrupted once again, but this time for the better, with fixie favorite Natooke vacating their longstanding Wudaoying spot in favor of a new venue a few streets south in the design-focused Fangia Hutong-adjacent Courtyard 46.

The new store is particularly hard to find – tucked down the alley to the right of Peiping Machine Taphouse, it’s certainly not somewhere you would ever stumble across. The shop is, however, an improvement on the old somewhat dingy store, with lots of light and space. Natooke’s hipster-pleasing passion for bicycles should fit right into Courtyard 46’s growing collection of trendy stores, design firms, and hip bars.

Meanwhile, after last year's closure of Wudaoying's expat-favorite Vineyard Café, the street's inevitable march towards commercial irrelevance looks set to be accelerated by Natooke's move. At least the empty store space will provide plenty more room for doorway photoshoots, now unencumbered by actual customers looking to get inside.

Having opened on Jan 9, we cycled down to check out the new shop and speak to shop assistant and mechanic Matteo Cherchi and manager Freda Fu about the move.

TBJ: Why did Natooke relocate?
Matteo: We moved mostly because the rent was getting too high. At first, we wanted to sublet half of the old shop to some other business and share the space. I think we found a guy with a coffee shop project back in September, however that didn't work out with the landlord.

What’s different about the new space?
Matteo: The new place is bigger than the Wudaoying shop and, being in a relatively new building, it's way warmer in winter. However, the new location is more hidden, and harder to find than the Wudaoying location. If before we had lots of people walking by out of curiosity, now only people that are specifically looking for us come to the shop. We are also going to miss our wonderful neighbors from Wudaoying.

Freda: Although we won’t get as much passing trade, we found people who wandered in from the street on Wudaoying generally didn’t buy anything. A bike isn’t an impulse purchase; people come to us with the intention of buying a new bike, so I don’t think the hidden location will affect our business.