Kitsuné
New York

11.05.2024 / 17 MIN Read /

A bold italicized cursive adorns white paper cups in the hands of dozens of New Yorkers traversing the West Village. Even for those who have never stepped foot into Café Kitsuné itself, the logo imbues a sense of familiarity, a recognizable indicator of a brand that has permeated cities around the world. A coffee cup that distinct is just a small part of a global phenomenon, a 22 year old lifestyle brand that has stretched into seemingly every corner of culture–from fashion to music, from hospitality to nightlife.

The West Village is home to one of two locations of Café Kitsuné in New York City, where Maison Kitsuné, the global fashion brand, has left a notable footprint. The popular neighborhood on the lower west side of Manhattan is home to the sleekest of coffee shops, clothing stores, and lifestyle brands. Café Kitsuné stands apart, for the decades of intentional development and global context that stand behind it.

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Café Kitsuné West Village is a bright space surrounded by windows, allowing light to filter in from the northeast corner of Hudson Street. Filled with sleek, minimalist wood accents and black rattan chairs, the Café is primed for a mid-day treat. Café Kitsuné is full on any given afternoon, offering a casual, accessible ambience. The Paris-based Café has found a way to be a pillar of consistency and quality in New York, attracting tourists and residents alike, hoping to get their hands on branded coffee cups or a Café Kitsuné croissant.

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New York is full of nice coffee shops–but we are interested in how Café Kitsuné, which evolved into a full-service lifestyle company, has found a success that surpasses a good cup of coffee. From Boerum Hill to Bali, Café Kitsuné seems to be showing up more and more.

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While we are lucky to have Kitsuné in our own neighborhood to experience first-hand, we had the opportunity to understand the brand’s global presence by speaking with Johanna Lellouche, the brilliant woman behind Café Kitsuné’s worldwide success. The interview to follow is a conversation with Johanna about the growth of Café Kitsuné, the importance of building a brand with a centralized DNA, and the strategy that has allowed for their prolonged success while maintaining a strong identity.

OW
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us about Café Kitsuné! I’m excited to hear your perspective. So let’s start with some background–can you describe your current role within the Kitsuné world?

JL
I oversee the global development and expansion of Kitsuné food and beverage ventures worldwide, particularly Café Kitsuné. So I manage internal expansion, market adaptation, and all the operations for the Café. I also focus on ensuring that the Café Kitsuné experience remains consistent, whether it’s through the menu, the design or the customer service.

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OW
How did you find yourself at Kitsuné? You’ve been there for nine years now?

JL
Actually 10 years now! I joined Café Kitsuné when the brand was in its early stages of growth. I wanted to contribute to a brand that challenges traditional boundaries, and Kitsuné operates at the intersection of music, fashion, and hospitality. I was also a fan of F&B and was always looking for the best coffee shops and restaurants everywhere I go. So, over time, I became more deeply involved in developing Café Kitsuné, which was a relatively new concept when I started.

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OW
Did you know right away that you wanted to be in food and beverage?

JL
Actually, I didn’t. I knew that I wanted to travel and discover new cultures. The coffee was one way to do so. When we invested in the coffee business, we went into the production of the coffee, meeting with farmers and working with experts to help create our own blend. We wanted to have the best quality and the best taste, it became a way for me to interact with new people, new culture, and travel to beautiful places.

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LP
To zoom out a bit, I discovered Maison Kitsuné after finding a tote bag online and, after learning about the brand, I fell in love. Years later, I noticed people begin to understand the Kitsuné brand through the Cafés. In some part that is due to the Café going viral and people hoping to grab a cup of coffee with the Kitsuné logo but, I am curious when the brand, as a Café started to pick up in the media? Was it immediately after you introduced the coffee? Or was that a strategic push internally within the team to market the Café branding?

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JL
That’s an interesting comment, because for some people, they know they will know Café through Maison or through the music level, depending on the person. It is interesting to hear that in New York, Café Kitsuné may be more well known than the brand.

Kitsuné was founded in 2002, and we founded Café Kitsuné in 2013. The founders are coffee lovers, and they wanted to have their own coffee. It wasn’t a marketing opportunity; it was organic. In 2018 we had a conversation where we sat down and said okay, we have beautiful locations in both Paris and Tokyo. I’m sure we can do something great and expand further. We were receiving requests for new Cafés and we began to grow. We opened Cafés in Korea, Thailand, Indonesia. When we began to grow and develop numerous Cafés, a lot of intention and focus was on figuring out what is this brand? Now, a lot of fashion brands want to have coffee shops, but Kitsuné was the pioneer and so we had to figure it out as we went and ensure the brand remained at the center of the project.

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OW
I want to backtrack a little to get a big picture on the brand. It’s fascinating how you were able to develop this other arm of the company, in part, because you had such a strong brand identity that could transfer from a hoodie to a coffee cup. Can you speak to the key to Kitsuné’s broader brand strategy, and how you think you were able to achieve such a strong identity for the Café, specifically?

JL
The key to our success is consistency in quality and authenticity. As I mentioned, we were the first fashion brand to open a Café, and we take pride in offering not just coffee, but a unique experience when you come into our Café, whether it’s in Paris or Tokyo or Bali. We try to adapt locally in terms of menu or design; it’s important to us to add local specificities to all of our Cafés and keep quality at the center of the development. When we decided to develop Café Kitsuné, as I mentioned, we became experts in the art of specialty coffee, covering all the stages, from roasting to the preparation. It’s important to highlight that we focus on our core business, which is the coffee shops, but we also diversified and expanded our expertise to honor a unique, authentic, experience.

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OW
From your perspective, what’s that core difference between spaces in big cities versus somewhere that’s a bit more leisurely or has a different, slower pace?

JL
What’s important to keep in mind is that today, everyone in different cities loves to have a good coffee, a good matcha, and a good pastry. And I think we became a reference in a way. We took a long journey to master these crafts, carefully sourcing a signature blend created exclusively for Café Kitsuné. This blend is crafted from meticulously selected beans from Guatemala and Brazil, balancing the rich, chocolatey notes of Brazilian beans with the subtle acidity and fruity nuances of Guatemalan beans. This result is an exceptional coffee, perfectly suited to the Lattes and Matcha Lattes for which Café Kitsuné is renowned. Whether you are in Paris or in Tokyo, you know Café Kitsuné is a landmark for good quality. It has also always been important to us to expand in premium cities. Bali actually came about because our founder loves the island and wanted to open his Café there. So, it’s also a question of passion, and that desire to transform your passion into a concrete project.

OW
From your perspective, what’s that core difference between spaces in big cities versus somewhere that’s a bit more leisurely or has a different, slower pace?

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OW
I’m really curious about all these different arms and how they operate towards one single brand, because you’ve been able to maintain this single central identity, and then to successfully create and nurture all of these other arms is, I think, incredibly unique and really impressive. Hearing you talk about the authenticity and expertise at the heart of all of these projects, how do you feel each of these branches, especially the development of the Café, have contributed to the overall brand?

JL
Each concept amplifies the other. People find out about the Café, as you mentioned, but through our music or fashion, which strengthens the connection with the Café as a lifestyle brand. All of these elements work together to create a unified experience and lifestyle. You can come to our Café to enjoy coffee while listening to our playlist and being dressed in Maison Kitsuné, so it’s a whole ecosystem, a whole lifestyle.
When you’re expanding the way we do, you do not want to rush. We are really focused on maintaining our quality. I am based in Paris, but I’m traveling a lot to ensure everything is up to standards and it’s difficult when you’re expanding globally, but we try to maintain this level of quality and service everywhere.

JL
Each concept amplifies the other. People find out about the Café, as you mentioned, but through our music or fashion, which strengthens the connection with the Café as a lifestyle brand. All of these elements work together to create a unified experience and lifestyle. You can come to our Café to enjoy coffee while listening to our playlist and being dressed in Maison Kitsuné, so it’s a whole ecosystem, a whole lifestyle.When you’re expanding the way we do, you do not want to rush. We are really focused on maintaining our quality. I am based in Paris, but I’m traveling a lot to ensure everything is up to standards and it’s difficult when you’re expanding globally, but we try to maintain this level of quality and service everywhere.

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The following section of the interview focuses on strategic partnerships, global expansion, and the evolving brand experience. It captures how Kitsuné blends culture, lifestyle, and hospitality, setting the stage for broader growth in new markets and concepts while fostering connections with customers.

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OW
I want to talk a little bit more about that growth, specifically Kitsuné’s collaborations. I personally find strategic partnerships and collaborating so interesting–it’s the most exciting part of the food and the fashion world. Could you tell us about how those collaborations have come to be, and if there was a first game-changing collaboration that opened the door for you to enter all of these other cultural sectors, or initiate other collaborations to follow suit?

JL
We try to have a good rhythm in terms of launching a new collaboration. Basically, every two or three months, a new collaboration is launched. If I had to highlight one of the collaborations we made, it’s a recent one with a French brand Aime, which means love in French. They specialize in probiotics and collagen, so this collaboration was driven by a shared interest in creating something that blends beauty with lifestyle. We created an exclusive drink and a pastry made with collagen and organized a yoga session in our office in Paris, inviting customers to do yoga and have a collagen coffee before going to work.

OW
It’s so smart. Being able to place names next to each other from the consumer side and also from the business side requires a real understanding of your brand and your customer, and knowing who will amplify Kitsuné and bring it into a new market. Why did that collaboration in particular feel so important?

JL
It was a new way to explore the industry, and expand what we offer to our customers, which is really an experience: you go to your yoga class, you go to the Café, you get your collagen, it is a sort of routine. All of these aspects are linked, whether it is obvious or not.

It’s important to always be curious and have an eye on those global trends and how they relate to their consumers. In Paris, the competition is hard. If you want to be the Café where people are going, you need to explore while focusing on your core business quality. That is what is the most important at the end of the day.

OW
In New York, specifically, the saturation of fashion brands and coffee shops is pretty significant, and it’s hard for brands to come in and set themselves apart. Is that something that you’ve noticed with Kitsuné? You are offering something so unique, but we are in this post-pandemic market where retail, overall, is producing less revenue, and yet everyone seems to be opening up their own store and building their own brand. Have you been seeing this in Paris as well? And has this post-pandemic saturation impacted the brand?

JL
The pandemic of course impacted the brand, as all the Cafés and all the Maison Kitsuné stores were closed. In Paris, we received some financial help, but having an international brand required us to be flexible and deal with the challenges in other markets. What we learned after the pandemic, is we are seeing a strong return to in person experiences. People crave the human connection that brick and mortar spaces provide, especially in hospitality. It has become a place where customers can engage with the brand and each other, making these physical spaces more essential than ever to the overall customer experience.

OW 
I’ve noticed the same thing in New York, where, things are popping up all the time, but it’s because there’s A. a demand for it, and B, people are just excited to be together and to have new experiences. It feels like a moment for brands to grow and evolve in a new landscape following a time of real challenge as a business owner.

I’m curious if there’s a specific year in your career there that felt transformative, or when you and your team felt this palpable moment of growth?

JL
A few times, to be honest. But when we first opened the restaurant here in Paris; we had only opened Cafés and we developed this restaurant concept and expanded that idea to Tokyo and Dubai and Indonesia, so I saw the impact of doing something here in Paris but then take on this other life and develop internationally.

OW
How do you feel like things have changed since starting at Kitsuné 10 years ago? Where do you see the brand growing from here?

JL
Kitsuné has grown from a coffee shop into a global lifestyle brand, including, as I mentioned, the restaurant, the bar, the day club. Looking ahead, I see us continuing to expand into other markets, developing new concepts, and maintaining the high standards that have defined us.

OW
Are you hoping to expand your reach geographically, or are you hoping to kind of enter new cultural sectors? Or does growth look like fostering what is already working well for you, and seeing where else you can take it?

JL
I do not put any boundaries on our growth. For me, the focus today is to explore new regions and new markets, especially in Mexico, Asia and the Middle East.

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OW
I see a hotel in your future.

JL 
Why not!

Since its inception, Spaced Magazine has been dedicated to showcasing brands and businesses rooted in authenticity. We believe in the meaningful contributions born from those who strike a balance between genuine passion and proactive ambition, with a consistent eye towards improvement. When an opportunity aligns with their innate interests, they are poised to execute it with excellence.

Johanna Lellouche, CEO of Café Kitsuné, embodies all of these things. She speaks from a decade of experience with the larger Kitsuné brand, including the original Maison Kitsuné arm, and has worked to bring her passion for hospitality, the Kitsuné founders’ affinity for coffee, and a strong brand identity to create a Café with a global footprint. Whether it’s the sourcing of their coffee beans, or curating each Café to be unique to its location, yet aligned with the overall brand, Café Kitsuné gave us a valuable opportunity to zoom out and understand what makes this brand so unique. Johanna and her team have created a brand so sure of itself, it has aged out of its adolescence, a now-mature, fully formed presence that is recognizable, even to the untrained eye.

Whether you’re passing a Kitsuné in Paris, Tokyo, Brooklyn or Bali, we believe the brand–in all its iterations–is a reminder that global success can indeed stem from authenticity. We hope Johanna and the powerhouse that is Kitsuné can be a source of inspiration as you navigate your own passions and pursuits, to chase your ambitions intentionally but with your heart at the center of it all.

WRITTEN BY OLIVIA WEISS

VISUAL ASSISTANT: ABBY STEARNS

PRODUCTION AND VISUALS by SPACED MAGAZINE