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Closed due to COVID
I was saddened to learn a few weeks ago that Frankie in Shimokitazawa closed down due to COVID related factors - as we all know, a lot of businesses have been hit pretty hard as a result of it, especially smaller, independently owned businesses. An important reminder that if you can support your local businesses in the current climate, please do! This was a real gem, loved by many, and it's sad to see that they've gone under.
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on Apr 6
Reminds me of a coffee shop you'd find in my home city!
One thing I miss from my home city of Melbourne is the coffee culture you'll find there. Melbourne isn't a city that favours chain coffee stores - instead, most places are cute, independently run cafes with highly trained baristas that see coffee as an art form. I'd read about Frankie a while back, and it really is as good as Lyssays review would have you believe! It's a cute, small premises (depending on when you visit you can struggle to find a seat!) but they do coffee very well, and have all your fave Aussie treats on hand. Lamingtons, lemon slice, hedgehog slice, Anzac biscuits - it felt like a step back to my home without having to leave Japan. If you want a slice of Aussie coffee culture and a sweet bite to eat alongside it (minus the 10 hour flight to get there) then Frankie is a great spot to check out.
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on Mar 11
A Melbourne-ish cafe in the heart of Tokyo!
Frankie is a small cafe located minutes from Shimokitazawa station. Its key feature is its claim to offer Melbourne-style coffee, i.e. coffee that is prepared and served in the manner typical of that found in the city of Melbourne, (arguably) Australia’s coffee and cafe capital. As a Melbournian myself, I’m happy to see that Frankie more than lives up to expectations. It’s tiny but atmospheric, and the staff and the menus alike are bilingual. Coffee is served in a range of styles, with a good variety of espressos available as well as some creative chai offerings. Whether you’re after a particularly Australian flavor such as a flat-white, or you’re looking for something more general, there’s plenty available for you to try. The mocha that I tried was good, a lovely balance of cocoa and bitter espresso. To be honest, for me, the main attraction of Frankie is the sweets on offer and their decidedly Australian theme. There are lamingtons (including a matcha-flavoured one!), pieces of hedgehog slice and large chocolate-dipped Anzac biscuits. The one I couldn’t go past, though, was the lemon slice and it’s exactly the way a lemon slice should be, dense, moist, and sweet. Aside from transplanting Frankie to somewhere a bit closer to where I actually live, the one thing that would make Frankie better would be a size increase. It fills very quickly with customers both local and foreign, and it can be hard to actually get a seat. I don’t get to go to Frankie as often as I’d like. It takes a long time to reach this cafe from where I live out in Chiba and as a result, I’m unlikely to ever be able to describe myself as a regular customer. If I could, though, I most certainly would (and I’d have better worked my way through the baked sweets menu by now). It’s just a fun place to visit, and it’s a perfect antidote to any homesickness as well!
genkidesu
on Mar 11