Founded by New York City-based husband-and-wife team Zach and Minami Mangan and two Japanese business partners, Kettl is all about premium matcha and green tea from the Land of the Rising Sun. Originally an online business, Kettl crossed over to brick and mortar, opening a café in the city’s NoHo neighbourhood, and as of late, a bigger outpost opened across the East River. The Kettl café and gallery is situated in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn, occupying a lofty 3,000 sq.ft. (279. sqm.) ground floor unit of a large red brick structure built in 1928. The design of the store, created by New York City-based architecture and design practice Michael Tower Architect, takes cues from traditional Japanese tea parlours, but is captured by modern materials. A white stucco façade sets the retail space apart from its surroundings and comes with a counter for takeaway orders.
Inside, whitewashed walls, comprising both original brick walls and new sections, and wooden flooring form the backdrop for simple furnishings and fixtures. The service counter by the window comes with tiered shelving and sits opposite a cabinet with tiered shelving, all filled with museum-quality ceramics. Beyond a custom-made communal table, flanked on one side by wall-mounted shelves, a concrete bar, cast in place, can be found. A recessed cut-out in the bar countertop holds a steaming tea kettle and sets up an important focus of the tea service. Behind the bar, Kettl‘s head office and storage can be found, measuring just about the same size as the retail space, and below a basement is situated. Indeed, Kettl is Japanese matcha and tea central, but takes things also a step further, offering not only a place where to shop and savour prized concoctions, but also curated teaware, gifts, tea classes and tasting events.
Kettl
70 Greenpoint Avenue (Greenpoint)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Telephone: +1 917 9091309
Mon-Thu 9am-7pm
Fri-Sat 9am-8pm
Sun 9am-7pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
