The Roastery by Nozy
Tokyo’s Single-Origin Coffee Lab
Eight single-origin beans, roasted in-shop, served espresso / French press / hand-drip. The Cat Street roastery that helped invent Tokyo's third wave.
Last verified: 2026-05-16
Why Japanese People Love It
Nozy Coffee opened in Sangenjaya in 2010 as one of the first Tokyo shops to bet entirely on single-origin coffee — no blends, no espresso milk drinks, just specific beans from specific farms served in specific brewing methods. The Cat Street location ('The Roastery by Nozy') opened in 2014 as the brand's roastery-cafe flagship — a large open room with the roaster visible behind glass and eight different beans on rotation at any given moment.
What sets The Roastery apart from neighboring third-wave shops is the breadth. Eight beans means you can order an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe as espresso, then a Bolivia Caranavi as French press, then a Panama Geisha as hand-drip, and feel three completely different sides of single-origin coffee in a single sitting. Most Tokyo shops carry one or two beans; The Roastery is built for comparative tasting.
Japanese specialty-coffee culture has its own genealogy — Fuglen (Norwegian-import roots, opened 2012), Onibus (the Nakameguro neighborhood roastery, 2014), Bear Pond (NYC-trained espresso, 2009) — and Nozy sits in that founding generation. The Cat Street shop is the most accessible of these for tourists, both physically (it's on the Harajuku-Aoyama walking corridor) and practically (English menu, easy ordering, multiple seating zones).
How to Experience It
Find the shop at 5-17-13 Jingumae, on Cat Street — the pedestrian shopping lane that runs parallel to Omotesando between Shibuya and Harajuku. From Omotesando Station exit A1 it's four minutes north; from JR Harajuku exit Takeshita-guchi it's eight minutes south. The Roastery's facade is a tall glass wall with the roaster visible inside.
Open 10am to 8pm with no closing day. Mornings are calm and a good time for hand-drip orders. Afternoons (especially weekends 14:00-17:00) get busy with Cat Street foot traffic. Seating is split between the indoor open room, a long wooden communal table, and a few outdoor benches in good weather.
Ordering: tell the barista what kind of coffee you usually like (acidity-forward, balanced, dark) and ask for a recommendation across the eight beans. The staff is trained to walk through origin notes in English and recommend brewing methods to match the bean.
What to Order
If it's your first visit, order a hand-drip (¥600-900) of whichever bean the barista suggests for your preference — it's the brewing method that most clearly distinguishes individual bean character. Pair with a single-origin espresso of the same bean for ¥400-500 extra to compare brewing methods side by side.
If you have time, the tasting flight (varies, usually ¥1,200) — three different beans in small cups — is the most efficient education. The shop doesn't always have this on the menu; ask. Brewed coffee can be ordered for takeaway in the standard insulated paper cups.
Plan your visit
| Area | Harajuku |
|---|---|
| Category | Café & Coffee |
| Price range | ¥600-1200 |
| Hours | 10:00-20:00 |
| Closed | なし |
| Access | 東京メトロ明治神宮前駅7番出口から徒歩4分・JR原宿駅竹下口から徒歩8分・キャットストリート沿い |
| Reservations | Walk-in only |
| English menu | ✓ Available Yes — English menu and bean origin descriptions |
| English support | Yes — English-speaking baristas |
| Last verified | 2026-05-16 |
Nearby Experiences
Cat Street's vintage and design boutiques run for ten minutes north and south of the shop — it's the best walking corridor in Harajuku-Aoyama and dense with one-off coffee, ice cream, and fashion stops. Rainbow Pancake is six minutes south and Maisen Aoyama Honten is seven minutes south for a tonkatsu lunch.
For comparing Tokyo's third-wave coffee shops back to back, do The Roastery → Fuglen Tokyo in Tomigaya (15 min by Inokashira Line) → Bear Pond Espresso in Shimokitazawa (additional 10 min). The three were operating roughly simultaneously in the early 2010s and built different versions of the same idea.