Text by MOOK Scenic Spots Home, compiled and reported
Senkosha Coffee is located at the corner of Nanjing West Road and Yanping North Road, a spot once famous for the Black Beauty Restaurant. In its early days, however, it was the first café opened by a Taiwanese person. Senkosha Coffee looks back on this history and has chosen to promote Taiwan’s specialty coffee here.
From the outside looking in, the interior decoration is full of style and charm. (Photo / Senkosha Coffee, the same below)
This place was once the first café opened by a Taiwanese person, “Vita Café.” Later, due to declining business, it was transformed into a restaurant with hostesses, then later became the similarly upscale Mile Hong Public Canteen. At the time, due to the sensitivity around the word “red” amid the tensions between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, it was renamed “All Beauty” and became the widely known Black Beauty Restaurant.
This place was once the first café opened by a Taiwanese person, “Vita Café.” Later, due to declining business, it was transformed into a restaurant with hostesses, then later became the similarly upscale Mile Hong Public Canteen. At the time, due to the sensitivity around the word “red” amid the tensions between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, it was renamed “All Beauty” and became the widely known Black Beauty Restaurant.
The café building features a grayish-white color scheme with simple, square-lined architecture. The corner façade is adorned with elegantly shaped plaster ornaments. This structure is a 1930s-era building that combines elements of modernist architecture with traditional Japanese wooden window designs, representing a transitional style between imitation Western buildings and modernism.
The seating area inside the café is filled with the ambiance of an old clubhouse.
The café was once Taipei’s most upscale restaurant, where many celebrities often gathered. Wealthy Taipei businessmen frequently conducted negotiations and deals here, and even political and business figures coordinated matters here. Now, this grand building at the triangular intersection has been revitalized, retaining the old sign of the “Mile Hong Public Canteen” for people to reminisce. Only time could transform such a place of indulgence into a hub for cultural creativity.
Choosing a bar seat allows you to admire the barista’s skillful pour-over techniques.
All the coffee offered at the café is from Taiwan. Senkosha aims for the international market, hoping to elevate Taiwan’s coffee to a specialty level. As such, from spatial planning and furniture arrangement to the coffee itself, the effort put in by Senkosha Coffee can be clearly seen.
The coffee used at Senkosha Coffee is all from locally grown Taiwanese coffee beans.
- 1
- 2