TAKAVA Coffee-Buffet

A coffee bar built around the cezve

The cezve, the long-handled pot used for Turkish-style coffee, is the idea the whole room grew out of. TAKAVA Coffee-Buffet took that vessel as its starting point and worked it into the logo and then into the architecture, so the shape recurs in the lighting and the detailing instead of sitting on a sign by the door. The design was developed with the Kyiv studio YUDIN Design between 2016 and 2017.

What resulted is a coffee-buffet: not quite an espresso bar, not quite a café, but a room that expects to be sat in. The original space runs to about 70 square metres on Velyka Vasylkivska Street, and a slightly larger second room followed at River Mall.

Copper, velvet and jezve-shaped lights

The material list explains the atmosphere: light wood, textured plaster, red brick, copper, velvet wall panels and round poufs in coffee, red and turquoise. Lighting is the signature, with jezve-shaped fixtures overhead and bulbs hidden inside copper vessels and wall niches, which is why the room reads warm in the evening rather than bright.

A tall cabinet holds vinyl and books in its niches, and a two-storey front window is arranged for sitting and watching the street go past. It is a room designed for a long coffee rather than a queue.

What is in the cup

TAKAVA roasts its own coffee, which is the substance behind the design. Espresso runs through a Victoria Arduino machine, a name from the older end of Italian espresso engineering, and an Aeropress is on hand for anyone who would rather have the coffee brewed than pulled.

The coffee list goes into more detail than most, naming varieties and processing rather than stopping at a country, so it is worth asking what is on. Start with espresso to judge the roast, then move to filter or Aeropress if you intend to sit with something longer. TAKAVA was recognised in the European Coffee Trip awards for 2025.