Weekend trend tip: open your own coffee shop at home for one day
Of course, there are countless fun coffee shops to be found in our country. But the most fun one with the very best coffee? That’s at your place! Opening a coffee shop at home is totally doable. Very doable, in fact, if we’re to believe the TikTok trends. Perfect for celebrating your birthday in an original way. How do you run a coffee café for one day? Simple—we’ll give you tips.
I say: let’s weave this into Dutch culture instead of those dreadful circle birthdays. We have to move with the times a little, right?
How to open your own coffee shop at home
1. Choose a theme (or don’t)
When you picture your ideal coffee café, what style is it? Are you going for a French bistro with espressos, croissants and pain au chocolats? Maybe American, with coffee in white mugs and doughnuts? Or are you keeping it nice and casual and skipping a specific theme? This is the moment to let your creativity bubble, both when it comes to the menu and the décor of your coffee bar.
2. Decide what to put on the menu
About that menu: let your inner baker loose! Cinnamon rolls, Dutch almond biscuits, pecan caramel tarts, matcha cookies, waffles; the possibilities are endless. Think about a fun mix of different sweet and savoury snacks. Brabant sausage rolls or kimchi croissants, for example, are also absolutely delicious to serve—and fun to make.
And what about the coffee? Not unimportant at all, of course, considering you’re opening a COFFEE shop at home. Are you going for the easier coffee-espresso-cappuccino combination? Or do you also want to treat your guests to matcha lattes and iced coffees, for example? Also think about the different types of milk you want to stock up on for milk-based coffees. Oat milk, soy milk, lactose-free; the choices you make will probably also depend on the guests you invite.
3. Do your shopping (on time)
Decided what you’re going to serve? Then it’s time to shop. Make things as relaxing as possible by preparing as many baked goods as you can the day before. Store them properly in an airtight container and they’ll taste just as good the next day.
‘Shopping’ also includes the décor for your coffee shop. How fun would it be to print the menu on a beautiful design? Or to add stickers featuring your own logo design to iced coffee cups and paper bags? At Action, Xenos and vintage shops, you can pick up fun decorations for next to nothing, from a pretty tablecloth to candles. Don’t forget to bring home a fresh bunch of flowers. It instantly makes the atmosphere that little bit cosier.
4. Decorate your coffee shop
The doors of your coffee shop are opening! But not before you’ve actually transformed the place into a coffee bar. Arrange your baked goods on a tray, board or table with baking paper underneath, and write on the baking paper with a marker exactly what you’ve made. Hang up your printed menu—or, even better: put it in a frame and display it. Get out your prettiest coffee cups and place them by your coffee machine. And, last but not least: put on one of those wonderful Coffee Table Jazz playlists via Spotify.
Believe me, your guests won’t want to leave. But after one day, you can happily close up shop again, and tomorrow you can once again relax at that one coffee shop around the corner.
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