Wife&Husband Cafe

The natural beauty of Kyoto makes it a great place for a picnic. But to do the city justice, skip the ham sandwich and can of Coke and picnic properly with a coffee hamper and choice rental accessories from the Wife&Husband cafe.

This coffee shop’s picnic basket service gives you a generous serving of fresh coffee in a thermos, ceramic cups, a tablecloth and rusk biscuits, which you can carry over to the grassy banks of the Kamo River – just 100 paces away – and chill like a local.

It’s a gentle, timeless and placeless space that’s just right for a tea break. Coffee is on the menu, too, of course. Wife&Husband roasts and sells single-origin coffee beans from five different countries and makes its own blend called “Daughter.” The sparse menu also includes tea, orange juice, cake and the popular honey-and-blue-cheese toast.

White clover season will come soon ⚘ 河川敷で日課の野花摘みをしながら少し野草が伸びてきたなと思っていたら、数日前にお役所さんがきれいさっぱりお手入れをされていました。 ところどころに群生し始めていた白詰草も一旦はお休みだけど、次に伸びて来た頃にはこんな感じに一面の白詰草畑でしょう。 ・ ⚘⚘⚘

A post shared by W&H / Kyoichi Yoshida (@wifeandhusband_kyoichi) on May 31, 2017 at 11:54pm PDT

Take picnicking to an art form by also renting a wooden stool or bench, or a folding table or a straw mat for sitting on – even a straw hat, a parasol, or a lap blanket! All of the items exude a natural, olde-worlde aesthetic that makes for fabulous photos.

The picnic hamper service costs ¥1,000 for 90 minutes. Pay just ¥50 for a 30-minute extension and an extra ¥100 a person for iced coffee. Rental of a stool or any other extra items costs a few hundred yen each.

The cafe is located down a side street that’s one block west of the south-west corner where Kitaoji street meets the Kamo river (there’s a gas station on the corner). Wife&Husband itself lives in an old house. It has a wooden counter and two tables and, as well as coffee and picnic paraphernalia, is filled with ancient objects the owners – a real-life husband and wife team – have collected during their travels around the world. A small collection of antiques for sale adorns one corner of the store.

If you want to beef-up your picnic, try Dai’s Sandwiches on the corner of that side street, or cross Kitaoji road and visit the take-out window of the popular Hasegawa Coffee & Grill.