Flannel Coffee Pours into Pi Bar's Space with Great Sincerity and Good Beans

The folks who set up Avotaco hidden atop the roof of Gulou Groumand have found another off-the-beaten-path location for their latest project, a café that’s about as hole-in-the-wall as they come.

Flannel Coffee, as the spot’s been dubbed, lies just down the road from the #024 venue we covered previously, but these two couldn’t be more different. Whereas the latter embraces a futuristic aesthetic, Flannel Coffee shares its space with Sanlitun cocktail joint Pi Bar (who take over in the evenings until late), which very much exhibits a style of the hutongs of old.

And everything about the café fits right into the antique aesthetic that Pi Bar set up. All coffees here are pour-over with a good selection of beans provided by SOE, but rather than using any fancy equipment, the water is poured over beans in a tattered cloth filter into the charming blue and white teacups. The owners and their friends will often spend all day smoking pipes and cigars on the location's porch step, overlooking the largely abandoned hutong in which it resides. (The street used to see much more foot traffic in the days before the neighboring bar street was converted to the commercial walkway that it is today.)

There’s not a whole lot by way of edibles, but there is cheesecake – a nice firm, square slice that pairs well with your cup of joe.

With so many wanghong nonsense-concept cafés and bars popping up around town, it certainly is refreshing to see a place like Flannel Coffee come around – a place that so clearly represents the lifestyle of the people running it. Such sincerity is rare to see, especially around Sanlitun these days, so our hats off to them.

Flannel Coffee is closed on Tuesdays. Pi Bar is open nightly.

Flannel Coffee
Xingfu Sancun, 5 Xiang
幸福三村五巷

READ: Rechill's New Coffee Bar Is One To Impress Pour-Over Highbrows

Images: Joey Knotts