{"id":8199,"date":"2022-09-23T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/global.typica.jp?post_type=roasters&p=8199"},"modified":"2025-05-13T23:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T14:37:16","slug":"lilo-coffee-roasters","status":"publish","type":"roasters","link":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/narratives\/roasters\/lilo-coffee-roasters\/","title":{"rendered":"LiLo Coffee Roasters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Amerika-mura (American Village) in the Minami district of Osaka is known as an origin of new trends. In this area, also a popular sightseeing spot for tourists from abroad, stands LiLo Coffee Roasters, operating a coffee stand and an authentic kissa-ten coffee house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its founding in 2014, Keita Nakamura, who now works as head roaster, has been cultivating the brand. Nakamura entered the world of coffee in his early 30\u2019s after working various jobs with a dream to become a successful actor. Why is it that Nakamura, who made 10 career changes, has stayed in coffee for a long time? We spoke to him to find an answer by retracing his life path.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Designing a people\u2019s shop <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever heard of the law of jam? It refers to the outcome of a psychological experiment. In the study, researchers put 6 types of jam and 24 types of jam at tasting areas of supermarkets. They found that people more often reached for samples when they saw 24 types of jam, but the purchase rate was actually higher when just 6 types were on offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This experiment shed light on humans\u2019 tendency to be confused by too many choices and thus avoid making a decision. Businesses have applied the finding to their marketing strategy. As if in total disregard for that theory, however, LiLo Coffee Roasters\u2019 menu offers 24 kinds of coffee beans. Prices vary, of course. But they are all treated equally, with none of them receiving a promotional push more than others.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBy making it harder to choose on purpose, we want to initiate a conversation with customers,\u201d says Nakamura. \u201cWith improvements in the quality of coffee equipment nowadays, machines are sometimes better than humans at brewing delicious coffee. It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if vending machines serving delicious coffee are invented someday. When I think about why humans should be there in the process, I feel that I should pursue something that only humans can do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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LiLo has been thorough with its emphasis on putting \u201chumanness\u201d front and center. All 12 staff members in its coffee division have their own Instagram accounts, posting about their unique perspectives on coffee and about their day-to-day life. When they serve customers, they hand out business cards adorned with illustrations of their faces as part of efforts to promote themselves, in addition to coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome staff members are more popular than others. But that\u2019s just the way it is. Whether they enjoy it or find it tough, that\u2019s where they are tested. In this day and age, I feel that those in the service industry have to see themselves as products to survive this world. LiLo itself has to have a weapon in the form of a bias like \u201cI like this about LiLo\u201d in order to be chosen over places, in addition to ensuring the quality of coffee beans as professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All 12 staff members at LiLo are on regular contracts. Only about 2% of applicants managed to land a position at the store. More than 10 students have asked to work part-time, but all of them were rejected. Perhaps because everyone who passed the highly selective hiring process has strong determination when they join the company, not a single person has quit at the end of a three-month trial period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat said, there are some who quit sometime later. This environment requires some creativity in a sense. I assume the job gradually gets tougher for those who just do the bare minimum every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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LiLo seeks to help everyone fulfill their utmost, stay interesting and create excitement. By an extension of that philosophy, the company’s take on coffee sees no bounds. In 2022, they launched new ventures, one of them being a gyoza dumpling joint called \u201cGyoza and LiLo and \u3007\u3007\u201d and another a sauna dubbed \u201cCoffee Saunners.\u201d The gyoza restaurant doesn\u2019t serve coffee in principle. There doesn\u2019t seem to be any common thread between coffee and gyoza. But they are something that people can enjoy with someone else at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are constantly looking for something we can get excited about and ways to communicate our joy. Personally, I want to do things my heart desires without hesitation. It\u2019s all the more fun if I have a place to express myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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There is no \u2018real me\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sporting a very short blond haircut and glasses and facial hair, this triad of Nakamura\u2019s trademarks has been exactly the same since the day he opened LiLo 8 years ago. To dispel a conventional image of a roaster as someone who is artisanal by nature and hard to talk to, Nakamura started by creating an approachable appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like playing a mascot character of LiLo all the time. So there is no \u2018real me.\u2019 That said, I\u2019m not pretending to be someone else, either. No one can probably recognize me if I take my glasses off, put a facial mask on and pull on a hat. In fact, I used to look normal, with black-hair and glasses and no facial hair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An Osaka native through and through, Nakamura has his roots in his high school days when he did a comedy duo with a friend because he loved comedy so much. There was something addictive about the joy he felt when his stand-up gigs and skits whipped his classmates into frenzied laughter. His head was always filled with a question: \u201cHow can I make people laugh?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that didn\u2019t lead Nakamura to become a comedian. He knew that he was able to act out a script someone else made for him, but not to create a joke from scratch. Hitting the insurmountable wall, Nakamura saw his limitation with clinical eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nakamura was a technical school student when he was fascinated by the world of acting. The emotions that welled up inside him only when he uttered lines given to his role, and the ability to meet his new self, brought him the kind of excitement he\u2019d never experienced before.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Still, making a living solely by acting comes with an arduous road ahead. Worse, no matter how much time he would spend honing his trade, there was no guarantee that he would be successful. Nakamura worked various jobs while performing in stage plays every now and then as a member of a theater company and a talent agency. Those jobs included a sweets shop worker, a bell boy, a floor staff member at a luxury hostess club in the upscale Kitashinchi area where the average patron paid around 700 dollars per night, and an employee at an amusement firm\u2019s human resources department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI worked different kinds of customer-facing jobs in various sectors because I wanted to use the experience as fodder for my acting. I don\u2019t feel like I was working those jobs just to earn an income. I picked them because they seemed interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my case, when I see someone having fun, then that\u2019s fun to me. That is at the root of everything I do. Whether comedy or customer service, the key driving force was the fact that I was able to see other people\u2019s reactions clearly and instantaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Any feedback is good feedback<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nakamura was in his late 20\u2019s when he was fascinated by coffee. That day, he dropped by a coffee house during a break from work. A cup of coffee he had there took him to another world. It was Ethiopian coffee. Its floral flavor and fruit-like acidity filled his mouth. It was a shocking experience for someone who had only drunken paper-packaged coffees sold at supermarkets and canned coffees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only later did Nakamura find out that the coffee house exclusively served specialty coffee. Having learned that there are diverse coffee flavors, he went on to attend coffee seminars and tried brewing coffee at home, using beans he roasted with a coffee roasting net. Nakamura found himself drawn deeper and deeper into the world of coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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A key person for Nakamura is Kyohei Hotta, the owner of LiLo and a friend from high school. Hotta, who is also a hairdresser, has cut Nakamura\u2019s hair for more than 15 years since their high school days. Horita used to serve his customers coffees he brewed himself at a bar counter he\u2019d created at his beauty salon. One day, he asked Nakamura if he was interested in joining him in opening a coffee roastery.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Nakamura was 33 years old at the time, and he had just engaged his girlfriend. He\u2019d already met her parents and announced their engagement, his hair dyed black and with no beard or mustache. But he couldn\u2019t resist the urge springing up from deep inside his heart. Nakamura had no experience using a coffee roaster, but he didn\u2019t have the slightest worry about running a roastery, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making up his mind to enter a new world, Nakamura made a promise with Hotta to shut down the roastery if it failed to turn a profit in one year. A month before the roastery\u2019s opening, Nakamura started living in a roughly 33-square meter room in the shop\u2019s building to learn as much skill and experience as he could, in the shortest possible time. He visited the parents of his fiance once again, this time with a different job and different look, with his now-signature blond hairstyle and facial hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing as the room was too spacious for one person to live in, Nakamura placed a roaster and jute bags of green coffee, and laid out a futon mattress in one corner. With little else to speak of, he single-mindedly practiced roasting coffee day in, day out. When the time came to finally open the roaster, he knew he was ready.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In the early days, though, his coffee often met with harsh feedback, with some customers saying \u201cit tastes rubbish\u201d and so on. Perhaps, his flashy appearance cast him in a negative light, too. But Nakamura is no snowflake. Outwardly, he expressed his sincere apology to his customers. But inside, he was feeling a rush of adrenalin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you are in a customer-facing job, any feedback is a plus, no matter how negative it may be. As a former serviceman at a Kitashinchi hostess club, I saw many patrons who got into a confrontation or full-blown fight but then became regulars later on. I found myself caught up in one of those situations myself, so I know this firsthand. If you handle their complaints in good faith, then they will start to like you. And you get to build a deep relationship with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In fact, some of his customers at LiLo who once bashed his coffee as \u201crubbish\u201d are now regulars. Nowadays, they even tell him his coffee \u201ctastes good\u201d. And whenever they do, Nakamura jokingly asks them, \u201cWhat was going through your mind when you told me my coffee tasted horrible?\u201d To that, they respond, laughing: \u201cI don\u2019t remember.\u201d Then Nakamura goes on, \u201cI have that on tape. Do you want me to go get it?\u201d This is just one example of interactions between Nakamura and his customers. And every single relationship like this is now part of LiLo\u2019s prized assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven when I get abusive comments on social media, I give a courteous reply partly because other customers see it, too. I\u2019m thankful to customers for taking an interest in us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Bringing out character<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When Nakamura launched LiLo in 2014, he was single-handedly in charge of everything from roasting to brewing to customer service. Nakamura was determined to turn a profit and seize on the chance. He manned the store from 9 AM to 11 PM. Then afterwards, roasting continued later into the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nakamura did everything he could, and then a turning point came just after the owner decided to continue LiLo and the store was nearing its first anniversary. Nakamura tripped over on a road and broke his left forearm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, he didn\u2019t hurt his dominant right hand. The injury didn\u2019t directly interfere with roasting or brewing. But Nakamura didn\u2019t allow himself to brew coffee in front of customers with his left arm in a cast and a sling because \u201cit felt like doing so would undermine the taste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Plus, he couldn\u2019t carry green coffee bags that can weigh up to 60 kilograms. Facing the limitations of running a shop alone, he decided, albeit reluctantly, asked one of his regular customers, a young woman, to help him out. This turn of events prompted Nakamura to put together and expand a team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy absence hurt the business, so there were times when I wanted the staff to copy me. But at the end of the day, I realized no one can possibly do exactly what I do. Even if someone could, it wouldn\u2019t be fun for them or me.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Since I started to try to bring out their own character, they\u2019ve seemed to enjoy working here. Seeing that, I feel respect for them, so there is good synergy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, Hirona, the store manager at LiLo Kissa, hosted an event titled \u201cHirona no Yoru-kai (Hirona\u2019s evening party)\u201d to mark the cafe\u2019s 4th anniversary. She introduced 8 kinds of coffee beans by equating them to girls with different personalities. Her own world view was on full display. It didn\u2019t make sense at all, but that was fun. If someone else takes over from Hirona to run LiLo Kissa, maybe the shop\u2019s atmosphere will change, and there might be a change in the clientele. That\u2019s just the way it is.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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No compromise<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nakamura, now the head roaster at LiLo, splits his time between Factory (a roastery) on weekdays and Roasters on weekends. He takes Wednesday off most weeks. But every so often lately, he can be found at Gyoza and LiLo and \u3007\u3007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t really feel like this is a job anymore because I\u2019m doing it to have fun. As you can see from my 10 or so career changes, I\u2019m the type to start doing whatever seems interesting without thinking much about what I will do afterwards. I didn\u2019t necessarily quit any job because I got fed up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been 8 years since Nakamura entered the world of coffee, and more than 10 years including the months he enjoyed coffee as a hobby. No other pursuit lasted as long as coffee has.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Coffee is quite simple. It\u2019s consumed all over the world in remarkable volume. Nevertheless, there is always something new to discover. That\u2019s why I can\u2019t have enough of it and can always find something fun with it. I think I\u2019ve been doing this for this long because I always believe there is something more to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, many aspects of coffee roasting are routine work. Sure, there are different types of green coffee, different environmental conditions and roasting profiles, and adjustments are necessary according to all these differences. But the process generally remains the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I\u2019ve been in this job for as long as I have, I\u2019m able to pick up on subtle changes and that gives me some energy. It\u2019s real fun to put together all kinds of invisible pieces of information, try to figure out the conditions of beans and do what I can to amplify their appeal. I have a low bar for enjoyment, and I can have fun doing little things. After all, what\u2019s life without fun?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Nakamura says making something from scratch isn\u2019t his forte; rather, he excels at taking something that already exists and building on it. For someone like him, Hotta is the best partner he could ever ask for. Thanks to his unique, seemingly outlandish ideas of furnishing his beauty parlor with a bar counter and opening a gyoza dumpling joint and a sauna, Nakamura is able to keep his foot firmly on the gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut at the same time, Hotta is also someone who pumps the brakes for me. I tend to get tunnel-visioned and move in a single direction. That\u2019s when he corrects my course from a broader perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The choices Nakamura has made in his life were always binary. When things go south, either he tries to enjoy the situation or he moves on and finds other sources of fun. He makes no compromise to keep doing things that he doesn\u2019t enjoy. With his philosophy and actions always consistent, Nakamura has lived his life without putting the brakes for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know that my performance and productivity take a dive if I\u2019m not having fun. I\u2019m like a child, in a way. Those who seem to be having fun attract people. LiLo has a hand in a lot of different things. But at the end of the day, we want to send a message that it\u2019s better to have fun. Coffee changed my life. I want as many people as possible to experience the same thing.\u201d
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Originally written in Japanese by Tatsuya Nakamichi
Photos by Misa Shinishi<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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