Issues

Belgian pop favourite Angèle on how the Paris Olympics’ stage transformed her career

Dressed in a black catsuit, Belgian pop star Angèle emerges from a smoky haze of red and blue to the sound of pounding beats. It’s the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the audience is cheering. She is on stage to perform French electro act Kavinsky’s “Nightcall”, along with indie band Phoenix. It’s a crowning moment in her career.

Though the ceremony marked Angèle’s entry into the international pop pantheon, the Brussels-based musician was already a superstar in the Francophone world. Her debut album, Brol, was a bestseller in France in 2019 and was accompanied by a sold-out tour. That year her single “Balance ton quoi”, which details the everyday sexism that women endure, became a defining song of the “BalanceTonPorc” (“Denounce your pig”) movement – the country’s equivalent of MeToo.

It has been almost five years since Angèle’s most recent album, Nonante-Cinq, but she has recently started releasing new music, most notably “What You Want” with French duo Justice. Here, she tells Monocle about her love for Belgium, writing political songs and where you’ll find her relaxing this summer.

One of your best-known songs, ‘Bruxelles je t’aime’, is a love letter to your home city. What does Belgium mean to you?
It’s a crazy little country that has so much to offer. Being Belgian involves knowing how to make fun of yourself because nothing is ever that serious. I love that.

You grew up in an artistic family and your parents are famous in Belgium [Angèle’s father is the singer Marka and her mother is comedian Laurence Bibot]. How has that influenced you?
My parents were so supportive. Seeing them in their dream jobs, I grew up with the audacity to think that it was the norm. I always knew that I wanted to be in control and not get stuck in situations that I wasn’t happy with. I have had some bad experiences with the industry but have always been very independent. I created my own label and my own publishing company.

You have toured with Belgian-Congolese rapper Damso. What was that like?
It was magical. Now he’s a huge artist but I saw him at the beginning of his career and he saw me at the beginning of mine. Opening for him wasn’t always easy because his audience was into rap; they weren’t ready to see me. It was probably the most humbling thing that I have ever done but it was important to learn that nothing is guaranteed and you have to fight. Damso and I have collaborated many times and we’re good friends. He’s a brilliant artist and a very philosophical person.

And what about the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games?
It was actually a last-minute thing. I was on holiday in Italy when I got the call. To be honest, I freaked out as I hadn’t been on stage for about a year. I asked for some time to decide and my managers encouraged me to do it. They knew that it could change my career.

At the ceremony, you sang a cover of Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’ and you have since released the song ‘What You Want’ with Justice. What’s your relationship with electronic music?
It has always been part of my life. I just love the roundness of synths and the sharpness of the bass and beats. Something that I love about [electronic-music genre] French touch is the importance of melody and chords. You can even hear chanson française chords in some Daft Punk and Justice songs. When Phoenix asked me to do “Nightcall”, it felt like a chance to connect with a song that I had grown up with.

Your song ‘Balance ton quoi’ soundtracked the French MeToo movement and the video is set in a satirical anti-sexism academy. Do you ever feel nervous about being politically outspoken?
There’s no doubt that it’s a political song, especially when you see the video, but when I wrote it, it was just my train of thought. I had been harassed on the subway that day and wanted to say something about it. When we made the video, I knew that I had to be serious about what I was saying. I worked with Belgian artist Charlotte Abramow and am proud of what we did. If I had to make a video like that today, I would freak out because I would think that it was too bold. I love how carefree it feels.

Your songs feel very intimate. To what extent do you write from your own experience?
My song “Ta Reine” is about two girls falling in love – well, one girl falls in love and the other is a little unsure. My best friend was going through something similar and I felt connected to that story too. When I got outed by the press [a tabloid magazine published photos of Angèle and her then girlfriend in 2019], I faced homophobia and it was shocking. But it was interesting how it suddenly felt as though I had written ‘Ta Reine’ for myself.

Where will we find you this summer – and what will you be listening to?
I’m not ready to tour so I’ll be relaxing. Brussels is amazing in the summer because it’s hot but still feels fresh. I’ll spend some time in New York too. Right now, I’m listening to European artists such as Amaia, Zara Larsson, Pink Pantheress, Theodora and Rosalía. Amaia recently did a Tiny Desk Concert [for US radio station NPR] where she played the flute with a chair. It was genius.

Global conflict sets a tone of controversy and contention at this year’s Venice Biennale

The day before the Venice Art Biennale opened to the public, a lone woman stood outside Russia’s pavilion. Her fedora, striking checked suit and sunglasses made her conspicuous but it wasn’t her style that kept a steady stream of smartphones and TV cameras pointed in her direction. On her back was a sign that read “No Putin No War”. The bright-blue Birkin bag swinging idly from her arm was emblazoned with a crossed-out illustration of the Russian leader’s face. “I’m protesting for all those who can’t,” she said, when asked about the bold action.

This was far from the only protest at Vernissage, the Biennale’s preview days for press and VIPs in early May. Feminist performance group Pussy Riot managed to shut the Russian pavilion temporarily when they arrived outside it wearing hot-pink balaclavas and wielding fuchsia flares. Elsewhere, the Solidarity Drone Chorus created a mobile demonstration of performers humming a viral song by Ahmed Abu Amsha, a music teacher from Gaza, accompanied by recordings of unmanned aerial vehicles. T-shirts worn by those taking part bore the names of Palestinian artists, many of whom were killed by Israel in the recent conflict. These activists turned their messages into haunting artworks: throughout the week, they were reported on as much as anything that hung on a pavilion wall.

The main focus of protests this year was the presence of Russia and Israel at the event, and the dissent culminated in a strike organised by the Art Not Genocide Alliance group (ANGA). On the final day of Vernissage, about 18 pavilions closed to visitors as part of the action – unprecedented in Biennale history. But while this year’s preview was an explosive assembly of activists and art cognoscenti, the complications started long before.

This 61st iteration of the Venice Biennale was put together by Cameroonian-Swiss curator Koyo Kouoh. She made history as the first black woman to take on the task but her role was cut short by her death in May 2025. While she chose the theme – “In minor keys” – it was up to the curatorial team that she assembled to oversee its execution. Just before Vernissage, the five-person jury that Kouoh appointed resigned in protest at the inclusion of the Russian and Israeli pavilions. Italy’s government also expressed its opposition to the former’s presence and announced an investigation into whether it might be in breach of EU sanctions.

While disputes and demonstrations might have dominated the news coverage, the works on show haven’t gone unnoticed. In the Giardini, Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger has created the most talked-about pavilion. Her exhibition, Seaworld Venice, extends beyond the building to include a topless performer dangling outside, becoming both a human clapper suspended in a giant bell and a striking advertisement for the presentation taking place inside. There, Holzinger’s company perform stunts nude on jet skis and take turns to be submerged in a glass tank surrounded by filtered urine from two adjacent Portaloos (open for use by visitors). Elsewhere in the Giardini, sperm banks, babies and belonging are the subjects of some of the most compelling national pavilions.

Here, artistry isn’t just contained in the main sites of the Biennale but floats and flows along Venice’s canals, in churches and gardens around the city, and across to neighbouring islets. From the boat en route to one of these – the tiny San Giacomo island – the first thing that you spot is a flock of bulbous, disembodied eyes fluttering in the wind. These omniscient kites are part of an installation by UK artist Matt Copson, marking the opening of San Giacomo.

At various points from the 11th century, the island has been home to a church, a military garrison and a vineyard. In 2018, San Giacomo was bought by the Italian Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and it has now been transformed into a public art space with permanent sculptures and two galleries. There is also a private home for the organisation’s founder, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, with interiors designed by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino.

“It’s a place that actively responds to the work and, at the same time, the island resists total control,” says Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. “It asks artists to listen and respond. This often leads to art that focuses less on display and more on relationships with the natural world.” The floating eyes that hover over visitors enjoying lunch and glasses of icy rosé on the opening day rely on the wind to make their statement. So too does an enormous, monstrous black kite and a metal sculpture that creates a buzz as it moves with the elements.

Many of the installations dotted around the island riff on the place’s history and landscape. “Huff and a Puff” by US artist Hugh Hayden – a full-scale place of worship, tilted forward at a jaunty 40-degree angle – nods to the past existence of a church here.

“All of the works reflect on questions that are central to San Giacomo – those of transformation, vulnerability, resistance and memory – and also the relationships between human and non-human systems,” says Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. “I think of them as a constellation, rather than a fixed curatorial statement. And I believe that the lagoon completes them.”

Back on the main island as evening falls, the Giardini and Arsenale begin to empty. Later, after dinner, the crowds reassemble outside palazzos. Extravagant outfits become home to sharp elbows as partygoers vie to enter exclusive events. At one, held by the Danish pavilion and Berlin-based arts platform Trauma, the Hungarian-Italian former porn actress, politician and pop star Cicciolina puts on a rare performance. Surrounded by flowers and wearing a matching floral crown, the septuagenarian provocateur’s disco ball of a dress competes for attention with her lip-syncing.

Outside, a green laser beams out from the island of San Clemente. This is an artwork entitled “Higher Power” by UK artist Chris Levine. Every evening this week, a militarygrade laser system shines a light upward. During testing, the beam was visible from the International Space Station. Further, bigger, better – perhaps it’s just another macho experiment in space exploration. Like the bulbous eyes on San Giacomo, it is, most of all, a reminder of the Biennale as a spectacle. The politics, the art, the people – everyone looking at what’s on show, watching each other or gazing upwards to follow a bright emerald light as it fades into the sky.

“It’s rare to find this kind of building in Paris.” Inside Antoine Ricardou’s Montmarte apartment

“I need to be in the sky,” says Antoine Ricardou, co-founder of Saint-Lazare, a design studio in Paris that has worked with brands such as Cartier and the Centre Pompidou. In the open-plan kitchen and lounge on the top floor of his three-storey Montmartre apartment, you feel as though you’re floating above the city. “I see it as a lighthouse,” says the architect and designer. “There’s a beautiful phrase in France for this kind of place: nid d’aigle – the eagle’s nest.” The room has a loft-like feel, with a pitched white ceiling, exposed beams and windows flanking both sides. Step onto the terrace and your gaze falls onto the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, which is so close that you can almost touch it. “It feels very poetic when you hear the bell,” he says.

Though located in a quintessential Paris neighbourhood, this is far from your typical apartment in the French capital. Rather, the entrance and stairwell look like something that you might find in Milan: terrazzo floors, plywood walls and a spiral staircase that winds up four floors. “It’s rare to find this kind of building in Paris,” says Ricardou. Unlike much of the rest of the city, which Napoleon III tasked Georges-Eugène Haussmann to redesign in the mid-1800s, Ricardou’s building was constructed after the Second World War. Little money was available so its design had to be more about function than form: no ornamental façades and wrought-iron balconies, which, says Ricardou, resonates with his own ethos. “At Saint-Lazare, we try not to be decorative but narrative-led and functional.”

Ricardou has long been a fan of this mid-century style and immediately fell in love with the building when he first visited. But what drew him to this hilltop wasn’t simply the complex. He grew up in Montmartre, the neighbourhood where his great-grandfather had settled after emigrating from Germany at the end of the 19th century, purchasing buildings and pioneering development. “Montmartre was a little hill on top of Paris with no major construction, only eclectic houses for artists,” he says.

The area hadn’t yet been annexed by the city so, while Haussmann set about transforming Paris’s narrow streets into wide boulevards fronted by buildings with grand exteriors, Montmartre maintained its village-like feel. “It was quite audacious and risky,” he says of his grandfather’s decision to develop in an area that was far from popular. “You couldn’t have imagined that this district would become so renowned and beautiful.” Today his relatives still own a few apartments in the area, in buildings with the family name, Gries, engraved on the façade.

Ricardou has followed in his grandfather’s footsteps. He has acquired neighbourhood institution Au Rêve, a café and bar that first opened in 1921, plus his apartment, which was originally two separate residences before Ricardou combined them. He purchased the first apartment 15 years ago as a two-floor space, then acquired the one below, connecting them with a wooden staircase that drops from the entrance hall to two further bedrooms. “It’s 150 sq m, which is very big for a French family but not very big for a family of five people,” he says. The wood-panelled vestibule on the second floor is inspired by Ricardou’s childhood spent in the Pyrenees, as well as the plywood in the building’s entrance hall. “This floor is connected to this building’s aesthetic,” says Ricardou. Rather than using cheap plywood, which was common in the 1950s, he turned to oak for the wall panels and African okume plywood for the staircase. “The homely feeling is important,” Ricardou says, explaining that it’s best achieved through warm lighting. “Every little space should be well lit. There has to be an umbrella of light in a dark room.” On top of the credenza in the hall is a mustard ceramic Saint-Lazare lamp topped with a cylindrical shade, one of the products for which the studio has become known. “A good designer should start with designing a lamp,” he says.

On the same level, the main bedroom has a terrace with city views. The bed, set on a creamy wool carpet, is surrounded by wood panelling and shelving that holds stacks of books, framed photographs and more lamps. There’s also an office but the star of the level is the bathroom, with terrazzo floors, marble-tiled walls and windows that look out onto Paris. “If I were the architect of this building in the 1950s, I would have done the bathroom like this,” says Ricardou. The porcelain bathtub, which doubles as a shower, was sourced from a garden on the western side of Paris. It’s now dressed with heavy, dark-mustard curtains that can be drawn during the colder months, which is what people living in this apartment would have done in the mid- 20th century. “It was a technique that you can find in old castles and houses, which were impossible to get too warm,” he says.

While one set of wooden stairs on the entrance level leads you straight to the lower bedrooms, the other takes you to the top floor, where Ricardou’s family members spend most of their time. To get there, he leads Monocle all the way up the narrow staircase, moving from the dark, moody entrance to a bright, loft-like space, crowded with books, paintings, photographs and objects.

This is the heart of the home, where Ricardou’s wife, Gwenaëlle Grandjean, and their children like to gather around a large table that doubles as a kitchen counter and workspace. “I love drawing while my kids are in the same space,” he says. “Or we’ll cook together here.” One person might be working while another prepares dinner but the point is that they’re together, even when they are not actively engaging.

In the living room, Ricardou’s love for mid-century design is on show: there’s a 1960s table by Johannes Andersen, with teak wood chairs from 1965 by Danish designer Peter Hvidt. Above it is a lamp by Denmark’s TH Valentiner. In the lounge area sit rope armchairs created by French modernist designer duo Audoux-Minnet in the 1940s. On one shelf is a sailing boat model by Yves Gaignet, a yacht-model specialist based in La Rochelle. Proudly displayed in a light box, the object is a replica of Ricardou’s own sailboat, The Tina, which was designed by Dick Carter in 1969. “We restored the boat ourselves and it now sails in the Mediterranean,” he says. “Having this model in front of me allows me to escape and sail a little in my mind.” Other pieces include an image by Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert and a drawing by conceptual artist Bernar Venet.

After curating the artworks for the Nomad Hotel in London, Saint-Lazare has established itself as a go-to name in art programming. This is evident on these walls, where varied works harmoniously coexist. “We have been collecting a lot of art, photos and drawings,” he says, noting that he often moves the pieces around. “We mix everything. We don’t hang things on the wall based on the price. It’s about our own private narrative.”

On this sunny day in Paris, the doors to the terrace are unlatched. If you look down, you see the building’s shared garden. Ricardou’s terrace is lined with plants – designed by his wife, who runs landscape design studio Atelier Lamarck – in a way that resembles a hedge overlooking the city. “It’s important for us to be surrounded by greenery,” says Ricardou. “Someone once told me that in Paris, it’s better to have a good balcony or terrace on the same floor, rather than a rooftop. It’s clever: you never go onto a rooftop but when you have a terrace connected to a room, it feels fully open.” With the doors flung open and the sun streaming in, the views of the city stretch out beyond the plants. From this vantage point, it feels as though Montmarte belongs entirely to you.

Rio’s extraordinary Costa Brava Clube began with a tent on the sand

Drive south from Rio de Janeiro along the coastal roads and the route will soon start veering gently west, until you spy the Atlantic glittering beyond the white sands of Praia da Joatinga. It’s here, between the shores of São Conrado and Barra, that a 25-year-old architect, Ricardo Menescal, imagined what has become one of the city’s most enduring icons. “This place will be mine,” he is said to have muttered to one of his siblings during a 1960s camping trip during which they pitched their tent on the beach. “I shall build a club here.” And that’s precisely what he did.

The Costa Brava Clube, perched among the coves, cliffs and grottoes carved by the Atlantic waves, opened to members in 1962 – the same year that his younger brother Roberto, a musician, had a bossa-nova hit with the anthem “O Barquinho”. Both that song’s melody and the architectural harmony of Ricardo’s club remain symbols of a moment of hope, creativity and a redrawing of the Carioca character that echo to this day.

The club was erected on Ponta do Marisco (“Seafood Point”) – the furthermost point jutting into the sea. Through the sale of membership bonds, Ricardo secured enough members, to provide him with sufficient resources to realise his vision. His goal was to create a club that would foster a sense of community among those living close to the Joá cliff.

Its construction started with a horizontal, curvilinear residential building that was adapted to the terrain (it probably wouldn’t have met today’s building regulations). A concrete fortress dedicated to leisure and pleasure, the club comprises function rooms, restaurants, ballrooms, thermal baths, a spa and a terrace with a swimming pool that offers beautiful views of the Cidade Maravilhosa’s now popular – but at the time undeveloped – coastline.

Central to Ricardo’s plans was a question that many designers struggle with: can you improve on nature? And how can an architect enhance its beauty? Many cities are made attractive by the built environment but this Atlantic outpost of almost seven million people offers breathtaking landscapes, beaches, forests and mountains. Look closer, though, and there’s also a strain of architecture that feels as Cariocan as Ipanema, the dramatic Sugarloaf mountain or the cool embrace of the waters of the Lagoa.

By the 1950s, the Rio that we know was taking shape as a place of experimentation, creativity and pleasure. Unlike powerful Brasília or business-minded São Paulo, there was space here to blur lines, to seek harmony between buildings and nature.

“Seu” Madureira was the site foreman at Costa Brava during the club’s construction in the early 1960s, when he co-ordinated teams of workers. He recounts the astonishment of Joá’s residents at the creation of the access bridge to the club, spanning a 96-metre gap over an isthmus with a post-tensioned beam – a method so ambitious and complicated that, to this day, it’s typically only feasible in vast public projects.

Madureira, who is endlessly fascinated by the structure that he helped to build and maintain, oversees the upkeep and booking of the sports courts. As one of the oldest and longest-serving members of staff, he is quick to share insights and knows every detail of the building. He’s also rather popular, as Monocle finds out on a visit, amid hails of praise and cries of “Bom dia!” (“Good morning!”). Madureira recalls with joy Ricardo’s creativity in inventing a system for capturing and pumping seawater into the swimming pool near the beach.

In some ways, the club’s heyday was in the 1960s and 1970s, when membership bonds were fiercely contested and its daring architecture was considered novel. Costa Brava still has about 800 members. For decades, however, its fortunes have waxed and waned. Eduardo “Duda” Gurgel, the current president, is today busy restoring the lustre of the past with some sense of why the place still matters and what it stands for. Is it an architectural oddity? A modern amenity? A failed utopia?

Fascinated by the club’s history, Gurgel guards a treasure trove of old photographs and the building’s original technical drawings. He says that condominium towers – a style of building that came to define the city’s postwar look – once also housed pools and amenities such as saunas and spaces for residents keen to meet and socialise. Alas, no more.

Beyond his architectural achievements, Ricardo was an energetic entrepreneur and adventurer. He was a pioneer of mountaineering in Brazil and founded the nation’s first hiking and camping club. He undertook some of the most difficult ascents of Sugarloaf Mountain – a neat metaphor, perhaps, for surmounting nature while respecting it. After the success of the Costa Brava, Renato, the youngest of the four Menescal brothers, joined Ricardo to design more than 50 other clubs. More than a decade after the latter’s death in 2002, Costa Brava Clube – a building deemed radical by some and strange by others – was recognised as part of the city’s cultural heritage. His name now graces the handsome belvedere on the Joatinga cliff where he first saw the site that inspired him to build. A memento of a creative flash.

The club today might be time-worn but something of the optimism of the original design remains. Yes, there are the snaps of long-ago parties and delirious carnival balls to pore over, but the success of the structure can’t be captured in faded photographs. When Monocle visits, young couples play in the saltwater pool, while scuttling children and the elderly are united by bronzed bodies and a feeling more vigorous than mere nostalgia. You can imagine that sun-soaked heyday and mid-century optimism. Swap that funky soundtrack for some bossa nova, narrow your eyes to the midday sun, and you could easily believe you were back when this adventure began.

Editor’s letter: Andrew Tuck on the booming business of coffee

The world can be divided into just two types of people: coffee devotees and tea drinkers. I am a proud member of the coffee tribe and, frankly, harbour a distrust of anyone who outs themselves as a lover of the teapot and all the stewed, tannin-laced evil that can spurt from its spout.

Coffee is about speed, energy, focus. It’s about having a stand-up espresso in a Milanese café, surrounded by people in good suits, or sitting outside a Sydney café enjoying another flat white with ready-for-fun friends. Coffee is also about well-designed cafés, clean aesthetics. And tea? Well, tea is all about becoming a permanent resident of Sleepy Town. It’s a world of slipper-wearers who say things like, “What I need is a nice cup of tea and to put my feet up.” Yes, bubble-tea bars and matcha cafés have proliferated but these are drinks that obscure their tea element using fruity flavours or Day-Glo green colouring. Really, if you need to get anything done, make sure that you find a coffee drinker.

And it seems that much of the world agrees with me. Certainly, the money people do. The coffee shop has become one the hottest investment sectors for venture capitalists, alcohol businesses trying to diversify and community-building fashion brands (you may have also noticed a media company close to my heart that likes to take care of its coffee-drinking readers).

And you can see why. A good coffee shop has universal appeal and has cut through in wealthy markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where socialising often takes place over a coffee, not with booze. The audience is young, design-aware and ambitious. So if you can create a cool brand, it’s possible to grow a healthy business. And it’s this latest iteration of the coffee trade that we pore over in this issue. We’ll meet the biggest players (China’s Luckin Coffee now has 30,000 outlets) and guide you to 25 of our favourite cafés around the globe.

This magazine also contains two further surveys. The first is our annual examination of the world of art and collecting, in which we meet seven players with deep insights into very varied sectors of the market, from rare posters and antiquities to contemporary art. Collectors are motivated by many things: obsession, passion, money. Perhaps the most fascinating part of our report is the unpacking of the cravings that drive people to fill their homes with objects and art.

US gallerist Easy Otabor, for example, tells Monocle that he has always collected. First it was training shoes. Now, with the art that he buys, he asks himself, “Are these [works] by good people? Would I enjoy having dinner or working with them?” Meanwhile, Pertti Männistö has gathered one of the world’s largest Alvar Aalto furniture collections. Over the past 30 years he has put together an array of pieces so large and of such significance that only a tiny portion of them will fit in his house, with the rest now in storage. Yet he continues searching for rare prototypes.

Then there’s the Class of 2026 Expo, masterminded by our editor, Josh Fehnert. He’s worked with Monocle’s writers and correspondents to spotlight 16 rising talents in everything from photography to architecture and cartography. Why? At a time when many media organisations focus on the negatives – what divides us – we wanted to put the spotlight on people forging ahead, tackling issues and delivering change, with hope and ambition. It’s a very uplifting conclusion to this issue. And I imagine that there’s a lot of coffee drinkers among them.

If you would like to drop me a note, please feel free to send thoughts and ideas to at@monocle.com.

What’s hot in the world of coffee? We spill the beans on the global market

There’s a challenge for owners of coffee-shop brands who dream of taking their companies to the next level: how do you hold on to your independent, neighbourhood vibe and have 10, 20 or 100 outlets? It’s tricky to pull off – yet not impossible.

But before we tackle the intricacies of global marketing, a brief coffee break. Because how did we get here? How did we get to dinky coffee-shop companies being valued at more than $1bn (€850m) and becoming the investment darlings of venture capitalists and global food brands?

When Monocle launched some 20 years ago, the coffee story already seemed piping hot. It was a moment when the Aussies and Kiwis were perfecting their soon-to-go-global flat whites and defining a new coffee-shop aesthetic. It was a time when being a barista was suddenly one of the higher callings in the world of F&B. When “latte art” was taking hold – and finding many of its finest practitioners in Japan. And, in the US, it was when a new generation of coffee pioneers was out to break the Starbucks model.

A so-called third wave of coffee culture, with lighter roasts and intense bean knowledge, was coming to the fore. There were several components to this then-DIY world that were set to catch the attention of ambitious entrepreneurs and investors. Drinks brands wanted entry to a trade that served young people who were imbibing less booze. Fashion companies saw a way of making a community by using their brand’s halo effect in the world of coffee. And others spotted that coffee, served in an impeccable setting, could prove lucrative in markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where people gather and spend their social time not in bars but cool iterations of the café (though this is not a one-way street because Emirati and Saudi brands are now going global too).

This all means that there is a lot of money to be made if you can crack the coffee-shop conundrum of growing big while looking small. Luckily there are models beyond coffee that show how it can be done. Take Aesop, which was founded by Dennis Paphitis in 1987. Today the body-care brand is owned by L’Oréal (which paid over €2bn for the pleasure), yet Aesop retains much of its initial indie DNA by keeping its branding almost unchanged, investing heavily in good shop architecture and appearing at design events such as Salone del Mobile. UK coffee shop company WatchHouse is aiming for the big time but through good design (and coffee). And it still feels cool despite having raised money from Mark Bezos’s private-equity firm. There are lots more following the same playbook.

It’s stories such as these that made us intrigued and, below, we will take you round the world to visit coffee-shop brands both big and small with interesting and surprising stories to tell. After that, we take you to 25 nice cafés – just places that we like. We hope that you find it refreshing.

Not your average joe: 25 of the world’s best coffee shops, run by next-generation owners

• 194 | Issues
• 16 min read

Breaking new ground: 25 exceptional brands that are leading the coffee industry

• 194 | Issues
• 22 min read

Editor’s letter: Andrew Tuck on the booming business of coffee

• 194 | Issues
• 4 min read

Breaking new ground: 25 exceptional brands that are leading the coffee industry

For our June issue, we’re exploring coffee on a global scale. Read about the project and join us on a tour of 25 nice cafés – just places that we like. We hope that you find it refreshing.

1.
WatchHouse
UK

Founded in 2014 in London’s Bermondsey neighbourhood by serial entrepreneur Roland Horne, who remains the CEO today, WatchHouse has become a ubiquitous café chain in the UK capital. It counts more than 20 London sites in premium spots, from Somerset House to Hanover Square’s Medici Courtyard.

Growth has been rapid, spurred on by multiple funding rounds, including more than $6m (€5m) from Mark Bezos (brother of Jeff) and HighPost Capital, a private-equity fund that he co-founded. The boost is being used to push WatchHouse’s expansion in the US, where locations include an espresso bar in New York’s Chrysler Building and a spot on Fifth Avenue. The UAE is also in the business’s sights with Dubai’s Marsa Boulevard already playing host to a WatchHouse pop-up.
watchhouse.com

Coffee confidence
WatchHouse founder Roland Horne has outlined big plans for his business. Last year, he set a goal of 500 WatchHouse outlets globally by 2033. One method that has worked well for WatchHouse’s expansion has been crowdfunding. In 2024, funding from more than 1,400 investors raised £7.2m (€8.3m) and reportedly made history as the largest equity-only raise for a hospitality business.

2.
The Monocle Café
UK

The Monocle Café, a short stroll from our offices in Marylebone, opened its doors in 2013, inviting our readers and listeners to step into Monocle’s version of hospitality. Our London location, which features wood-panelled interiors courtesy of interior-design firm Edo Construction and a Japanese-inspired seasonal menu with bites such as strawberry sandos, is joined by sister cafés in Zürich and Paris.

Meeting readers over morning coffee and evening spritzes has helped us expand the brand and take care of a growing community of customers. Our Chiltern Street shop is a few doors down too.
monocle.com

How coffee came to London
Where would you open a coffee shop in London? The first gentleman to grapple with location angst was Pasqua Rosée, who is credited with launching the inaugural coffee house in the UK capital in 1652.

Rosée had been working as a servant for the English merchant Daniel Edwards in modern-day Izmir, where he served his boss the local brew – coffee. When Edwards returned to London, he brought Rosée with him and encouraged his amenable barista to set up shop near the Royal Exchange. London quickly took to the drink – marketed as a cure-all tonic – and by the early 1700s there were hundreds of coffee shops dotted across the city.

3.
Delta Cafés
Portugal

From humble beginnings in the Portuguese countryside, Delta Cafés is now one of the largest coffee purveyors in Europe, as well as the Iberian peninsula’s biggest roaster. Founded in 1961, its produce can be found in more than 40 countries, from China to Brazil. As well as operating locations in Porto and Lisbon, Delta chose Paris’s Avenue de L’Opéra as the setting for its first café abroad.
deltacafes.com

4.
Right Side Coffee
Spain

Joaqúin Parra wasn’t exactly a newcomer on the coffee scene when he founded Right Side Coffee in 2012. Hailing from one of Spain’s most established coffee families (who own Mare Terra, a coffee importer that has set up Europe’s first online green-bean shop), Parra had the know-how to source directly from growers and avoid intermediaries. Despite Right Side recently opening its own coffee bar in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, he has kept the roastery headquarters low key: it’s still in the beachside Catalonian town of Castelldefels.
rightsidecoffee.com

5.
Miro
Switzerland

One of Zürich’s most prominent coffee brands, Miró has always been mobile. Founded by brothers Dani and David Sanchez as a coffee truck in 2013, the company has expanded to include two outposts in the city’s main railway station and pop-up coffee bars for events around the city. It’s also served to customers onboard select Swiss flights. “Coffee is part of everyday life,” says David. “And that is exactly where it has to happen.” Permanent locations include its flagship roastery-café in Zürich’s Kreis 4, as well as a kiosk in Kreutzplatz, which opened in April. “We build places, not branches,” he adds. It’s a fresh business model.
mirocoffee.co

6.
Home comforts
Italy to Saudi Arabia

Beans are only half the battle when it comes to making a formidable brew. For a taste of where home brewing is heading, try a machine from Singapore-based Morning. It’s possible to fine-tune temperatures and pressure profiles at the swirl of a dial. There’s also online access to bespoke settings that suit specialist roasts from your favourite coffee shops.

You might also want to try La Marzocco, founded in 1927 by Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi, remains the industry workhorse. The machines are still hand-assembled near Florence and will set you back by as much as €20,000 for the bigger beasts. Italy dominates the market with marques including Nuova Simonelli and Sanremo. Binasco-based Cimbali bought Seattle’s Slayer in 2017.

This leaves Synesso as the clear choice for a US-made option at the higher end of the market. Its colourful powder-coated options are particularly fetching.

7.
Girani
Italy

In Italy, coffee gained a foothold in 18th-century Trieste via arrivals at its bustling port, before spreading to Venice. Caffè Girani, founded in 1928 and the oldest torrefazione – roaster – in the city, carries on the old traditions in a space that feels equally impervious to time. Today, Roberta Girani owns the business. The granddaughter of founder Giuseppe Girani (who also enjoyed a career as one of the Venice football team’s most successful managers), she ensures that high-quality, all- arabica blends never run out at Caffè Girani and also sells fresh blends to go. “Coffee is above all a true passion – almost a mission,” says Roberta.
3727 Campo Bandiera e Moro, Venice

8.
Kafeterija Magazin 1907
Serbia

Belgrade’s Kafeterija Magazin 1907 is more of a cathedral than a café. This multi-level monument to the holy bean inspires awe with its vertiginous colonnaded interior and has in-house roasts from Cuba and Tanzania – and even Indonesia’s rare civet-extruded kopi luwak. The flagship’s scale reflects the ambitions of Kafeterija’s founders, Zoran Stanojevic and Marko Vukomanovic. From a standing start in 2014, their chain now has more than 60 nicely designed branches across Serbia and Montenegro – and backing from Bulgarian private-equity company BlackPeak Capital to become “southeast Europe’s leading speciality coffee brand”. Expansion to Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary is percolating; the brand’s expansion shows how a local player can seize a market.
kafeterija.com

9.
Black Honey
Ukraine

Ukrainians love their coffee. Even amid the financial and economic pressures of war, the number of coffee shops grew by a third between 2022 and 2024, continuing an interest in café culture that had boomed over the past decade. Entrepreneur Oksana Vitynska positioned herself at the forefront of this change when she became Ukraine’s first licensed Q grader (the coffee industry’s answer to a wine sommelier) in 2015 and opened Black Honey’s first café the following year. “The type of customers visiting Ukrainian cafés has changed,” says Vitynska. “They are knowledgeable and demanding when it comes to the process, bean origins and the taste of the coffee.”

With nine locations in Lviv, Vitynska’s business is planning the right moment to export its mid-century modern look and refined menu abroad.
shop.blackhoney.ua

10.
Dukamo Coffee
Ethiopia

As the country where the coffee plant was first discovered, Ethiopia is steeped in traditions relating to the drink, including the jebena coffee ceremony – a social ritual integral to the rhythms of daily life. But now a new generation of Ethiopians is mixing tradition with global culture and changing how coffee is enjoyed across the country.

Kenean Assefa Dukamo, the founder of Dukamo Coffee, a small chain of cafés with three locations across Addis Ababa and the lakeside city of Hawassa, is leading the charge. The young entrepreneur is also deputy CEO of renowned Ethiopian coffee exporter Daye Bensa Coffee. Dukamo Coffee connects farms and roasters with the brand’s cafés, and wants its best beans to be enjoyed both domestically and abroad. Its brews draw a young, upwardly mobile crowd in spaces that blend pared-back contemporary design with references to the jebena ceremony.
dukamocoffee.com

11.
Spring Valley Coffee
Kenya

Speciality roasters are virtually unheard of in Kenya, despite it being a coffee-growing country. Though its beans are among the most highly valued in the world, the country didn’t begin growing the plant until 1893 – relatively late in an industry already well established by the early 19th century. But café brand Spring Valley is changing that. It was launched in 2009 and bought nine years later by former banker Ritesh Doshi (whose previous venture, Naked Pizza Kenya, was sold to Pizza Hut). The business buys green beans from local farmers and roasts them onsite. It now has eight locations in Nairobi, including at the US embassy. Spring Valley also ships beans worldwide and has planted its first flag outside Kenya with a café in Islington, north London.
springvalleycoffee.com

12.
Half Million
Saudi Arabia

In largely alcohol-free Saudi Arabia, a coffee shop is the place to be and sipping a qahwa (Arabic coffee) is a bonding ritual. Homegrown coffee chain Half Million is shaking up the menu with a variety of options, from piccolos to iced hibiscus and cortados. Founded in 2018 by businessman Abdullah Al Rajhi (also known for his real-estate projects and seat on the country’s tourism board), Half Million has given international competition a run for its money by tempting Saudis with clever social-media marketing, a slick modern aesthetic and convenience, with more than 70 locations across the kingdom. The chain has added international outposts in Baghdad and London, demonstrating that the region now exports brands rather than simply hosting them.
halfm.sa

13.
Luckin Coffee
China

Luckin Coffee, China’s answer to Starbucks, was founded in 2017. It has grown rapidly, with more than 30,000 outlets and 98 million monthly customers. In 2023 alone, the business opened more than 8,000 outlets. Part of the appeal is how cheaply and quickly its coffee is made – and now it is exporting this model to Singapore, Malaysia and the US. App-first shops with minimal seating draw a young city crowd. Centurium Capital, the investment firm behind Luckin Coffee, has now acquired US-founded Blue Bottle.
luckincoffee.com

Quick bucks
Luckin’s deer logo symbolises wealth, vitality and luck. But several of the brand’s bosses were ousted in 2020 following a financial scandal. They have since founded a rival called Cotti Coffee.

14.
Café Amazon
Thailand

Thailand’s economy relies on a legion of truck drivers making deliveries across the nation. For many, as their vehicles refuel at well-stocked service stations, their caffeine fix comes from Café Amazon. This chain was founded in 2002 by state-owned oil company PTT and its colourful macaw logo is instantly recognisable. Almost every PTT station in Thailand has a Café Amazon and with more than 5,000 outlets across 10 countries in Asia and the Middle East, it enjoys a huge reach. It also has higher-end cafés in Bangkok’s smartest shopping malls. A new flagship “experience” café has opened in the Ari neighbourhood; the purpose-built high-rise also features spaces for co-working, events and a rooftop restaurant.
cafe-amazon.com

The regional view
Southeast Asia produces about a quarter of the world’s coffee but its countries are also growing consumer markets. Vietnam is the world’s second-largest producer and its domestic coffee industry is expected to surpass $660m (€561m) by 2028. Meanwhile, Indonesia ranks fourth in terms of production; domestic consumption has tripled since 2020.

15.
Top of the coffee roasteries

1.
Italy remains a key player. Trieste-based Illy had an annual turnover of €700m in 2025, while Turin’s Lavazza celebrated its 130th year in business with revenues of €3.9bn. Viva l’Italia.

2.
Luckin Coffee has taken the industry by the horns and in April 2026 opened a vast, €375m state-of-the-art roasting centre in Qingdao, China, which the company claims is the largest in the world. It has the annual capacity to roast more than 55,000 tonnes of the black stuff.

3.
Beyond the mass market, specialist roasteries have been able to position a cup of joe as a daily luxury and price their beans accordingly. London-based Monmouth Coffee Company – which was founded in 1978 and boasts three shops – has mastered the art of branding. In a market dominated by gimmicks, its simple, sandy-hued sachets adorned with a sans-serif font hint at the company’s values of quality, transparency and consistency.

16.
Highlands Coffee
Vietnam

Vietnam is second only to Brazil in bean production and the consumption of coffee can be seen on every street corner, from roadside carts to hip cafés. The Vietnamese even have their own method. Ground coffee is placed in a small metal slow-drop filter called a phin and mixed with condensed milk. Highlands is the country’s biggest chain and takes its name from the coffee- producing region in central Vietnam.

Vietnamese-American entrepreneur David Thai continues to manage the company that he founded in 1999 with the support of majority investor Jollibee Foods of the Philippines – a stealth coffee giant by virtue of its ownership of South Korea’s Compose Coffee and the cups that it sells in its fried-chicken outlets. Highlands is nearing its 1,000th outpost and it has unveiled a timely brand refresh courtesy of design studio BaseSGN.
highlandscoffee.com.vn

17.
Kopi Kenangan
Indonesia

Kopi Kenangan (“coffee memories”) was founded in 2017 by Indonesian entrepreneur Edward Tirtanata. It has since become the major player in his home market, a country of more than 280 million people, and a top-five coffee producer. The business model is simple: offer superior-quality Indonesian coffee at a lower price than in the international chains.

Kopi Kenangan has built a strong brand and stayed true to its roots while attracting investment from a stellar list of financial backers, such as Li Ka-shing (Hong Kong’s richest man). The company has more than 1,000 outlets in Southeast Asia and Tirtanata wants to triple this by the end of the decade.
kopikenangan.com

18.
% Arabica
Japan

Tokyo-born Kenneth Shoji opened the flagship % Arabica coffee shop in Kyoto in 2014. Today the business has 235 locations in 29 countries. It has strong connections to China, with its largest market in the country, and new spots also coming soon to Australia, Iraq and Kazakhstan.

Shoji borrowed money to buy a coffee farm in Hawaii, started trading green beans and became the sole exporter of a Japanese make of roasting machine. Strong design and clear branding (just look at the business’s distinctive logo and the percentage sign that marks its presence in a neighbourhood) have imprinted % Arabica on the minds of coffee drinkers.
arabica.com

19.
Café Kitsuné
Japan

Founded in Paris in 2002 by French entrepreneur Gildas Loaëc and Japanese architect Masaya Kuroki, fashion and music label Maison Kitsuné is a blend of Franco- Japanese influences. Café Kitsuné, which has more than 30 branches globally, started in 2013 as a counter inside a Kitsuné shop in Tokyo. A roastery opened in Okayama in 2019, a standalone café was established in Paris the same year and the first European roastery, Café Kitsuné Vertbois in Paris, followed two years later. The brand’s distinctive fox logo (kitsune in Japanese) plays well on merch. Ralph’s Coffee trucks and cafés by Ralph Lauren are another example of a fashion brand creating a covetable café collection.
maisonkitsune.com

20.
Mecca Coffee
Australia

Paul Geshos didn’t expect Mecca Coffee to last this long. In 2005, Italian blends still dominated and speciality coffee was still emerging. Today, Sydney is one of the world’s most celebrated coffee cities and Mecca runs its own roastery, operates three outposts and supplies leading hotels and restaurants.

Geshos bet that Sydneysiders would start caring about where their coffee originates. “We have used the Cup of Excellence since 2007,” he says, referring to the industry’s most prestigious sourcing competition, which identifies top producers and auctions lots directly to roasters at premium prices. In an industry driven by fast expansion, Geshos built a community, knowing that once people understood what was in the cup, they would want to taste it.
mecca.coffee

21.
Tim Hortons
Canada

Few national coffee franchises have embedded themselves into daily life as much as Tim Hortons has in Canada since it was co-founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, by an ice-hockey star (after whom the chain is named).

One of its most popular drinks, the “double double” (a hot cup of coffee with two portions of coffee cream and two spoons of sugar), is a term so well used that the Oxford English Dictionary added it to its Canadian edition in 2004. Since being acquired by Brazil-based fund 3G Capital, which owns fast-food groups Burger King and Popeye’s, this Canadian outpost of reliable and reasonably priced coffee now has more than 6,000 locations worldwide.
timhortons.com

22.
Blue Bottle Coffee
USA

Frustrated with mass-produced coffee, former clarinet player James Freeman began roasting small batches of beans in a shed in Oakland, California in 2002. In 2005, he opened his first café in San Francisco, serving coffee from beans roasted no more than 24 hours earlier. Word spread and the roastery grew. It’s now owned by Centurium Capital (a major backer of Chinese chain Luckin Coffee), which acquired the brand from Nestlé for just under a reported $400m (€340m) in March 2026. There are now more than 100 outposts – known for their clean, sharp interiors – across the US, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
bluebottlecoffee.com

23.
Atomo Coffee
USA

Many people avoid coffee because of the dreaded caffeine comedown, which can push whole hordes of customers away from the product. But Seattle-based business Atomo, founded by tech entrepreneur Andy Kleitsch and food scientist Jarret Stopforth in 2019, has found a way to lower coffee’s crash factor. Atomo’s special recipe includes a mix of arabica beans and ingredients such as date seeds, carob and chicory root. The business claims that the drink has gut-friendly benefits, a boon for the health-conscious consumer.
atomocoffee.com

24.
Parlor Coffee
USA

In 2012, Parlor Coffee started on a shoestring in the back of a Williamsburg barbershop, where former Stumptown barista Dillon Edwards worked a single espresso machine. Today the business is run by Edwards and his wife, Tessa – who designed the branding – on a wholesale-first basis, supplying hotels and restaurants alongside a home subscription. Parlor Coffee’s headquarters are now in a repurposed carriage house next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the roasting machine of choice is from German brand Probat (made in 1965). Coffee heads can educate themselves at a tasting room, which is open at weekends.
parlorcoffee.com

25.
Blank Street
USA

If there’s one colour that has come to represent Gen Z’s obsession with all drinks iced and matcha, it’s Blank Street’s signature green. The shade has been with the chain since co-founders Issam Freiha and Vinay Menda served their first drinks out of a coffee cart in New York in 2020. Six years later and the company (still founder-owned) was valued at about $500m (€425m) in 2025. It now operates more than 90 locations across New York, Boston, Washington and the UK. Maintaining quick, automated Eversys espresso machines, a small physical footprint and a to-go format keeps Blank Street’s service fast and its prices lower than most competitors.
blankstreet.com

Not your average joe: 25 of the world’s best coffee shops, run by next-generation owners

For our June issue, we’re exploring coffee on a global scale. Read about the project and join us as we visit coffee-shop brands both big and small with interesting and surprising stories to tell. We hope that you find it refreshing.

1.
Fuglen
Norway

The cross-continental champion
Founded in Oslo in 1963, Norwegian coffee brand Fuglen has focused on Asia instead of the big European or North American cities. This is thanks to the strategy of the current owner, Einar Kleppe Holthe, who bought the business in 2008. Fuglen’s first overseas outpost opened in Tokyo in 2012, followed by shops across Japan, Indonesia and South Korea. Last year there were openings in Kyoto and a second location in Seoul; new shops in Fukuoka and Bali opened this year. “We’re showing that you can build a very good business, based on values, that doesn’t only think about profits,” says Holthe.
fuglen.no

2.
Harlan Coffee
Philippines

The urban oasis
Catering to on-the-go professionals, Filipino entrepreneur Emmanuel T Pineda’s Harlan Coffee seeks to serve up re-energising experiences that fit into the rhythms of our working lives. Its priorities can be gleaned from its choice of locations: the first were near stock exchanges. It has 10 shops in its home city of Manila and 10 in Jakarta. The long-term strategy is international expansion, with ambitions to open a flagship in every Southeast Asian capital. Harlan Coffee is also being rebranded by Winkreative, Monocle’s sister company.
harlanholden.ph

3.
Sip
Lebanon

The creative choice
When Omar Jheir opened Sip in Beirut’s Gemmayze district in 2017, it was the city’s introduction to artisanal coffee. Now there are about 20 cafés on the same street. “In the past couple of years, there has been a coffee movement in Beirut,” says Jheir, who was inspired by the bean scene of Australia, where he grew up.

Sip’s original café is in a former upholstery workshop, with its industrial aesthetic preserved. A second Beirut branch is imminent at Ramlet al-Baydeh beach and there’s an outpost in Cairo.
Sip, Gemmayze Building 341, Beirut, Lebanon 1100

4.
Nuances
France

The aesthetic innovators
Founded by brothers Charles and Raphaël Corrot, Nuances has been turning heads in Paris with its retrofuturistic interiors. It has recently opened a fourth shop in the city: a cube-shaped outlet with dramatic lighting in Le Marais. Its Rue Danielle Casanova site is another visual highlight: a listed former creamery from the 1930s, its façade, floor and ceiling are historic treasures. “The contrast with the futuristic bar is striking,” says Charles. The appeal isn’t all aesthetic: house recipes such as the rose latte (eau de rose brewed with matcha and milk) and collaborations with a pâtissier give the brand extra, well, nuances.
cafenuances.com

5.
Alchemist
Singapore

The entry point
Singapore-based brand Alchemist, which recently marked its 10th anniversary, remains committed to its founding mission of making coffee approachable. “We have always offered a wide selection from around the world that’s high quality but not too expensive,” says Ang Wei Kiat, Alchemist’s director of coffee. Across 15 sites in Singapore, plus cafés in Taipei and Tokyo, the roasts on the menu accentuate sweetness and clarity. “No education or experience is needed to enjoy those things,” says the company’s founder, Will Leow.
alchemist.global

6.
Deluxe Coffeeworks
South Africa

The daily grind
When Carl Wessel and Judd Nicolay are choosing café locations for their South African brand Deluxe Coffeeworks, they look for spaces where people will want to return daily. “This allows us to become part of people’s everyday routines,” says Wessel. The business began as a coffee roastery in Cape Town 17 years ago but today the city hosts four of its cafés. There is also an outpost in Stellenbosch, as well as a roastery in Namibia. In Cape Town, you’ll often spot residents on the go sipping Deluxe flat whites. The roastery business has since expanded to supply 450 wholesale customers and coffee shops.
deluxecoffeeworks.co.za

7.
Abuelo
UK

The gathering place
Combining speciality Latin American coffee with a strong visual identity, Abuelo has two outposts in London: its first opened in Covent Garden in 2018 and a Marylebone café followed in 2024. Its distinctive look draws on the architecture and design roots of the company’s mother-and-daughter founders, Lynette and Cloe de la Vega. “Many architects who design for hospitality can get it right for the photo but so wrong for how it feels to be in the space,” says Cloe. “We start with the practical elements before moving on to the workflow, how customers engage with the space and what we’re trying to communicate.” Featuring sharing tables, vintage furniture and wood-panelled interiors, Abuelo offers well-designed places that invite you to linger.
abuelocafe.co.uk

8.
Subko
India

India’s best brew
Entrepreneur Rahul Reddy’s light-bulb moment for Indian coffee brand Subko came when he realised that most speciality shops in the country relied on African and Latin American producers. “I asked myself, what about Asian coffee?” he says. Reddy opened the first Subko in Mumbai in 2020. Six years later, there are outposts in four cities across India, plus one in Dubai. He has expanded its repertoire to include South Asian inspired bakes and bean-to-bar chocolate too.
subko.coffee

9.
Koffee Mameya
Japan

The must-book bean house
Founded by Eiichi Kunitomo, Koffee Mameya has carved out a niche in Japan’s coffee scene. First came a backstreet bean shop in Tokyo’s Jingumae in 2017. Four years later, Koffee Mameya Kakeru opened in a renovated warehouse in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. This reservation-only shop embodies Kunitomo’s mission to elevate coffee through an experience akin to fine dining. These two locations, plus a third in Hong Kong, show the potential for businesses built on craft over convenience.
koffee-mameya.com

10.
Die Cafetière
Austria

The mid-century treasure
Die Cafetiére is a fine example of the espresso bars that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as counterpoints to Vienna’s traditional coffee hubs. Originally an outpost of family-owned roaster Naber, Die Cafetiére was reopened in 2023 under the ownership of Peggy Strobel, who retained its original details – such as a brass-edged bar and the Naber logo on the façade – but updated the menu to put flat whites alongside the Wiener melange. “Though we have tourists visiting, we’re essentially a neighbourhood café,” says Strobel. In keeping with its design-forward charm, the back of the café also doubles as a furniture showroom.
diecafetiere.wien

11.
Hagen
UK

The Danish ambassador
Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Schroeder founded Hagen in 2017, hoping to bring a bit of his native Copenhagen to London. “Our coffee culture is about a love for quality and individuality,” he says. With more than 20 locations spread across London’s smarter areas, Hagen now sits at the high end of the market. “Our brand is analogue – that’s a premium in a digital world,” says Schroeder. “Because we are located in affluent areas, we can ask for people’s time, which in turn creates brand loyalty.” In 2025, Hagen expanded to Amsterdam, a city that Schroeder says is close to Danish hearts. “We’re as obsessed with site selection as we are with the cities we want to share our coffee passion with.”
thehagenproject.com

12.
Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi
Turkey

The heritage house
In the bustling backstreets next to Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, the rich scent of coffee pulls customers to the Mehmet Efendi HQ. The brand has been roasting coffee here since it was founded in 1871. “It isn’t just part of our family business’s history; it’s also a cherished part of our customers’ personal histories,” says Mehmet Kurukahveci, grandson of Efendi, who now runs the business along with his brother Hulusi. Today it operates a café in its original headquarters, plus two further shops in the city. Its coffee is also available in all of Turkey’s major supermarkets, so you can take that iconic logo home.
mehmetefendi.com

13.
Samba Coffee Roasters
Greece

The ice-cold roasters
Though exporting beans remains key to Samba, a fixture in Athens since 1979, completing a flagship café in the Kolonaki district in 2020 gave its owner, Kostas Kalafatas, a deeper insight into Greek coffee preferences. The frappé – a frothy iced coffee created using instant granules that defined Greek café culture for decades – is now being replaced by the freddo espresso, made with two shots of freshly brewed espresso shaken with ice cubes. “It’s the main coffee now,” says Kalafatas. “Greeks drink it cold year-round, no matter the temperature.”
sambacafe.gr

14.
Sede Café
Mexico

The to-go go-to
Opening 59 branches in 27 months is no small feat. Founded in 2024 by former banker and one-time Blank Street intern Javier Arrigunaga, Sede Café has become a staple in the Mexican capital. It’s an almost entirely takeaway business: few tables, no lingering, just good coffee at the fast pace that the city demands. Sede has expanded beyond its roots in Mexico City’s Roma and Condesa districts. You’ll now see its blue branding in malls and neighbourhoods such as Vallejo. “Accessibility means two things: fair prices and proximity,” says Arrigunaga. You shouldn’t have to cross the city or spend too much to enjoy a good coffee.

15.
Koncrete
UAE

The cultural hub
Just off Jumeirah’s beachfront strip in Dubai, Koncrete is part-café, part-cultural anchor. Founded by Emirati entrepreneur Himyan Al Qubaisi, it reflects her long-standing interest in art, architecture and pared-back design. “Concrete is the foundation, the base layer,” she says. “Koncrete is a starting point for new ideas and connections.”

Polished concrete floors and exposed columns are offset by moss-green seating and sheer drapery, creating a space that feels both industrial and inviting. The menu, meanwhile, is focused and unfussy. Coffee is sourced with care, alongside a small selection of sandwiches, matcha, beans and branded goods.

Koncrete hosts low-key events with local and international brands. In doing so, it has carved out a loyal, design-literate following and a place in Dubai’s growing creative landscape.
koncretespace.com

16.
Doutor
Japan

The pup-friendly park spot
With 1,072 branches and revenues of ¥76.8bn (about €417m) in the last fiscal year, Japanese chain Doutor Coffee Shop runs a wide range of operations. Founded in 1962 as a roastery, it opened its first shop in 1980. But for one of its most recent projects, Doutor focused on something smaller – a café in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. Based on the site of the Dutch team’s lodgings for the 1964 Tokyo Games (when the park served as the Olympic Village), it features stone walls made from Japanese Aji granite and a large wooden table consisting of a slab of Zelkova wood. The menu offers Doutor staples, as well as park exclusives such as a fresh strawberry matcha latte and a Yoyogi Dog with Hokkaido four-cheese sauce. Real dogs lounge on the terrace, while an outdoor hatch serves their owners. “We wanted to provide a relaxing moment for everyone who comes to Yoyogi Park,” says Doutor’s PR officer, Yuko Maekawa.
doutor.co.jp

17.
Single O
Australia

The batch-brew trailblazer
Australia’s coffee cachet is built on espresso-machine mastery. But Sydney café and roastery Single O, founded by Emma and Dion Cohen in 2003, has a different calling card. The self-serve batch-brew bar, known as Freepour Batch, was co-created in 2018 with Sydney-based manufacturer Six Simple Machines. The system, inspired by craft-brewery taps, allows for the quick batch-brewing and dispensation of hot and cold speciality drinks, from rare Geisha single-origins to the bestselling iced-oat lattes. It accounts for almost half of all café sales at Single O. The brand’s expansion to Japan began in 2014; it now has five locations and 55 staff in Tokyo. “We’re giving more variety to the customer, as well as more innovative beverages and faster service,” says Michael Brabant, Single O’s CEO. “It’s not just lattes and flat whites.”
singleo.com.au

18.
Lap
Germany

The low-cost disruptor
“Germans drink more coffee than beer,” says Ralph Hage, who was born in Lebanon. “But unlike in London or New York, you couldn’t find good affordable coffee for the commute here.” So, alongside former start-up executive Tonalli Arreola, the ex-banker sought to remedy this. Since opening in Berlin in 2023, LAP has grown to have more than 30 outposts, with a further 20 poised to open this year. “Banks wouldn’t lend to me as a foreigner so I rang my investor friends,” says Hage. Critics accuse the venture capital-backed chain of undercutting independents but its cash-conscious customers are fans.
lap.coffee

19.
Pingado LX
Portugal

The mobile ‘bica’
Working in the tradition of the ice-cream carts that were once a common sight in the parks of the Portuguese capital, entrepreneurs José Galamba and José Paiva dos Santos founded Pingado LX. The brand serves bica espressos prepared on their bicycle cart. “With the rise of Nordic-style cafés, we felt that the Portuguese custom of picking up a bica on the street was slipping away,” says Galamba. “Someone told us that the smell of our coffee brought back memories of being at their grandmother’s house.”
pingadolx.com

20.
The Miners
Czech Republic

The franchise with ambition
You might not have heard of it yet but this Czech chain has its sights set on conquering Europe. Launched in 2019 by Egor Kolpakov and Oldrich Valta, The Miners has opened 34 coffee shops in seven European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, and is set to enter several more markets by the end of 2026. While most of the cafés are franchised, all are supplied with beans from The Miners’ Prague roastery. The cost of opening a new branch is high (an investor typically must commit between €200,000 and €400,000) but the rapid take-up shows that its high-quality beans and stylish design are worth banking on.
theminers.eu

21.
Canyon Coffee
USA

The neighbourhood hangout
When Casey Wojtalewicz and Ally Walsh co-founded Canyon Coffee in 2016 as a wholesale business (with the occasional pop-up), they had $5,000 (€4,250) in savings and a $10,000 credit line. Four years and multiple pop-up events later, the business had revenues of $1m (€850,000), giving Wojtalewicz and Walsh the boost to start thinking about launching a physical outpost. Their first café opened in Los Angeles’ Echo Park in 2022. A roasting facility in the city’s downtown followed, along with a café in New York’s Brooklyn neighbourhood. Another café in LA’s Eastside is on the cards for later this year. “There’s intention behind everything that we do at Canyon Coffee without it ever being ‘in your face’,” says Wojtalewicz. “People feel and appreciate that when they come to us and that’s the goal – to create spaces that are beautiful and easy to return to every day.”
canyoncoffee.co

22.
Allpress
New Zealand

The global giant
Part of Japanese drinks giant Asahi’s non-alcoholic beverage portfolio, Allpress operates 18 cafés in four countries, including the UK, Japan and New Zealand, where the brand was founded. The company also serves more than 2,000 independent cafés globally, including Monocle’s in London. “We don’t just sell bags of coffee,” says Agnes Potter, Allpress’s managing director for the UK and Asia. “If someone wants an extra-large latte with two sugars, we want to make the best one that they have ever had.” Allpress’s latest opening was in London’s Farringdon area in April.
allpressespresso.com

23.
Morettino
Italy

The belle-époque beanery
Caffè Palermo is just one of Sicily-based roaster Morettino’s three outposts but it serves a crucial purpose. Opened in 2024 after five years of restoration and based inside the 16th-century Palazzo Guggino Chiaramonte Bordonaro on Palermo’s Quattro Canti square, the café has allowed Morettino to enhance its offering in an area dominated by tourist spots. A Liberty-era outdoor kiosk will also open later this year. “It’s about creating a rapport,” says one of the owners, Andrea Morettino.
morettino.com

24.
Market Lane Coffee
Australia

The modern masterpiece
Melbourne is a city that helped to elevate the barista’s profession so entrepreneurs opening a coffee shop here can feel a little daunted. It was this challenge that Fleur Studd and Jason Scheltus decided to take on. Since opening Market Lane Coffee in the Prahran food market in 2009, the pair have expanded to nine shops in Melbourne. Its latest, in Mitchell House, is its most design-forward yet. It features curved, steel-framed windows and a standing bar facing the street.
marketlane.com.au

25.
Lalere
Switzerland

The one-off wonder
Founded by Fabian Gass and Eric and Luca Blum, Lalere offers an appealing mix of striking design and good hospitality. Gass, a certified coffee taster and Zürich-based brand Vicafe’s former roastery head, provides deep coffee expertise; his brothers-in-law Eric and Luca have brought their studio OnkaiArts’ design nous. The trio built Lalere’s wood-lined interior mostly by hand; almost every element of the space was made specifically for it, from its plaster finishes to its timber details. “The aim was to create something that would last and not distract,” says Eric. According to Gass, another goal was to build a social hub for the surrounding community. The curved counter, for example, encourages conversation. “We were trying to create the kind of place where we would want to go ourselves,” he says.
lalere.ch

Edge Group, the defence conglomerate driving the UAE’s fast-growing arms industry

The road to Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Military City is as unremarkable as its designers must have hoped. As the Emirati capital’s towers and boulevards recede in the rear-view mirror, the landscape flattens into a vast stretch of desert. Heat rises in ripples from the road. Tawazun Industrial Park (TIP) is a collection of industrial buildings and reinforced compounds scattered across the sand, punctuated by watchtowers and checkpoints, as well as the odd bunker-like shelter. Behind thick concrete walls and barbed wire sits one of the Gulf’s most strategically important sites – one that, over the past few months, has become increasingly central to the UAE’s ability to defend itself. This is the main manufacturing base of Edge Group, Abu Dhabi’s state-backed defence conglomerate that, in just six years, has become one of the world’s fastest-growing military-industrial groups.

The timing of Monocle’s visit is significant. The UAE is mired in a regional conflict that has brought the reality of modern warfare to the Gulf. After the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, Tehran sent thousands of drones and fired hundreds of missiles into Emirati airspace. At TIP, war has ceased to be an abstract idea. For decades, the UAE has seen itself as the region’s safe haven – a place of calm in an unstable neighbourhood, somewhere capital, talent and tourists could move freely, insulated from local conflicts. In recent months that perception has been challenged.

Edge’s role extends beyond manufacturing missiles and drones. It is helping to defend the UAE’s reputation as much as its airspace. But as the nation’s defence ambitions have grown, so too has scrutiny of how and where its systems are used, raising questions about whether a country that positions itself as a neutral hub can also be a major arms exporter. Inside the building containing EPI, one of Edge’s precision-engineering businesses, workers in protective goggles move between workstations. In one corner, teams are fabricating metal frames used in penetrator payloads and bomb casings. Staff who would ordinarily focus on work in the aerospace, oil or gas sectors have pivoted to support urgent wartime production. Across TIP, bomb shelters sit between buildings and thick concrete barriers line the entrances. Teams have moved to three-shift rotations. Some employees, we are told, have slept on factory floors to keep production lines moving uninterrupted.

Edge executives had long anticipated a conflict of this kind. Founded in November 2019 through the merger of more than 20 Emirati defence and technology companies, the group was designed to help secure the UAE’s military sovereignty and build a globally competitive defence export industry. The nature of the current war appear to have vindicated those aims.

“It was a do-or-die moment for us,” says Khaled Al Zaabi, Edge’s president of platforms and systems, of the initial Iranian drone and missile attacks. Monocle first speaks to him in the early weeks of the conflict. He is in his car between meetings, speaking quickly and candidly about the need to shift to a wartime footing. When we meet in person, he is standing in front of a Jeniah, Edge’s unmanned-combat aerial vehicle.

Al Zaabi says that Edge’s role has always stretched beyond manufacturing. “The primary objective is enabling the sovereignty of the UAE’s military-defence capabilities,” he says. That goal, he adds, underpins every acquisition, product-development strategy and investment decision. The second objective is economic: turning defence manufacturing into another engine of growth for the country. The two ambitions are intertwined. To build sovereign capability, Edge must create products that are effective enough to compete internationally. And to compete internationally, those products must be battle-proven. If they succeed abroad, the revenues generated will help to sustain the industry at home.

In 2019, Edge’s export sales were about $50m (€43m), according to Miles Chambers, the group’s senior vice-president of international business. By 2025, it was generating about $5bn (€4.3bn) in turnover, about 70 per cent of it from exports. “We were predominantly domestic,” says Chambers. “Now we’re predominantly export-based.” This has not come without controversy. In recent years, for example, concerns have been raised about the flow of Emirati weapons into Sudan, which plunged into civil war in 2023. Hamad Al Marar, Edge’s managing director and CEO, is unequivocal. “I can tell you clearly: we have never supplied Sudan,” he says. “We operate within international law, export-control regimes and end-user certification processes.” However, in contexts where alliances can shift quickly and weapons outlive politics, such assurances are rarely enough to silence critics. Investigations by the UN, Amnesty International and others have identified weapons manufactured in Europe, North America and the UAE – including by Edge – among those being used in the conflict.

Today, Edge employs about 19,000 people around the world and operates more than 35 entities across several clusters: missiles and weapons, autonomous systems, space, cyber security, naval systems, electronic warfare, land vehicles and advanced manufacturing. Chambers describes the international push in commercial terms but the geopolitical implications are obvious. Edge has secured a €1bn contract to deliver three corvette-class naval vessels to Angola. It has established offices and industrial operations in Brazil and is expanding in Southeast Asia and Europe through acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures.

Recent deals with Italian firm Leonardo, French aerospace company Safran, and a European joint venture with Indra, suggest that the group has wider ambitions. There’s a strong focus on countries in the Global South that are seeking systems that are more adaptable and cost-effective than those offered by traditional Western suppliers, says Chambers. Edge executives insist that their products are faster, more agile and less burdened by legacy infrastructure than those of established defence companies based in Europe or the US. Plus, since they were built in direct response to current threats, Edge believes that its systems are more relevant to today’s conflicts.

At Edge’s HQ in Abu Dhabi, a missile-themed chess set sits on a coffee table in Al Marar’s office. “This is a new addition,” he says. “It was gifted to me by the Ukrainians.” Days before our visit, Volodymyr Zelensky was in the UAE for talks with the Emirati leadership, including discussions around regional security and defence co-operation. The chessboard is a reminder that in today’s world, geopolitics and commerce are never far apart.

Dressed in a white kandura robe, Al Marar talks less like a corporate executive than a military officer. When we ask him whether the war has been a test of Edge’s relevance, he says, “Two-hundred per cent.” For decades, the UAE invested heavily in missiles, radar technology and defence systems, drawing criticism from those who saw such spending as excessive. Today those systems are helping to intercept incoming threats and protecting infrastructure, airspace and civilians. “People might say that we have allies,” adds Al Marar, leaning forward. “And, of course, they’re there. But at times like this, you get to see whether your investments were in the right place.”

Those alliances are evolving too. In early April, Anwar Gargash, the Emirati president’s diplomatic adviser, said that Iran’s aggression would “solidify” the role of the US in the region. Meanwhile, following the Abraham Accords, signed by Israel and several Arab nations including the UAE in 2020, Abu Dhabi has been deepening its intelligence and defence ties with Jerusalem. The result is an increasingly layered security strategy: traditional US military backing, expanding regional intelligence partnerships and, now, a growing domestic defence-industrial base.

Al Marar points to the speed at which Edge and the wider Emirati defence ecosystem responded when the US-Israeli conflict with Iran began. “No country can deploy to hundreds of sites in two days unless you have things ready, unless you are on the ground and unless you don’t need to wait for permission,” he says. Asked how it feels to see systems developed by his teams used in active defence operations on Emirati soil, he pauses. “As a father,” he says, “I would say that it has made all of the birthdays missed and the school events missed go away.” Al Marar has four children and says that he began working on the day that he got married. “You can’t run it like a business in times like these,” he says. “You open your stores. You supply. You work 24/7. You continue the fight.”

On a remote island about 100km from Abu Dhabi is a secure area known as X-Range. The island is one of Edge’s lesser-known but increasingly important assets: a vast, multi-domain testing and evaluation site where the group, the UAE military and international clients can trial systems across land, air and sea. Reached by boat, aircraft or a narrow causeway, the site spans some 350 sq km, with clear airspace above and open waters around, allowing everything from missile firings and drone swarm exercises to maritime autonomy tests and electronic warfare simulations.

In the past, much of the UAE’s military equipment had to be sent to Europe, the US or Turkey for testing, slowing development and creating dependence on foreign ranges. No longer. “The UAE has historically been a net importer of military capabilities,” says Harry Rose, the international business development and sales manager at Remaya, the Edge-owned operator of the site. “Now the UAE is moving into a much higher-fidelity defence manufacturing environment and naturally there’s a bigger demand for testing space to support the development of those products.” On any given day, says Rose, the island can host up to five test events: engineers subject missile components to extreme heat and vibration; drones are trialled in flight zones; video pilots are trained in mock villages. Along the shoreline, surface vessels conduct manned-unmanned teaming exercises, while on the live-fire ranges missiles are launched towards static and moving targets.

What makes X-Range particularly valuable is the efficiency that it allows. Rose says that simple test events can be booked within five days; at many Western facilities, it can take six to 12 months. This allows Edge and its clients to “test earlier, fail earlier and test more often”, adds Rose – shortening the journey from concept to deployment.

As the conflict with Tehran has continued, technologies have had to adapt in real time. Threats are changing, drone tactics are evolving and electronic warfare is intensifying. One of the systems being put through its paces when we visit is Edge’s Shadow fleet of loitering munitions and strike drones – systems that executives say have been used extensively to help intercept and eliminate incoming Iranian projectiles before they reach Emirati territory. According to government sources, the UAE military’s interception rate throughout the war has remained above 95 per cent, a figure that officials attribute to a layered defence network of radars, electro-optics, missiles and autonomous systems. On the runway, the aircraft are launched in quick succession, before climbing sharply into the Gulf sky and banking out over the water towards their targets. Designed to lurk over an area before striking, the Shadow systems are emblematic of the kind of low-cost, fast-deploying weapons reshaping modern warfare.

If missiles are the visible side, sensors represent the invisible. At Edge’s Electro-Optic Centre of Excellence (EOCE) labs in Abu Dhabi, Chaouki Kasmi, the group’s CTO and president of technologies and industrialisation, offers Monocle a look inside the systems that have become the first line of defence in this war. Dressed in an oversized brown suit, platform loafers and a baseball cap, he looks more like a creative director than a defence scientist. Kasmi oversees systems and technologies embedded in Edge’s products, from radars and radios to electro-optics and AI-enabled battlefield innovations. “This is your eyes,” he says, gesturing towards a radar system. “You can have the best weapons system but if you can’t see, there’s no point.” Radar handles long-range detection, while electro-optical systems confirm the target. Then the UAE’s Ministry of Defence can decide whether or not to engage.

The next step might be the creation of an Iron Dome-style layered defence architecture tailored to the Gulf, one that combines long-range radar, electro-optics, interceptor missiles, electronic warfare and autonomous strike systems into a network that’s capable of neutralising incoming threats at multiple stages of flight. In recent weeks, that vision has moved closer to reality. According to reports, Israel has supplied elements of its Iron Dome system, a remarkable development given how sensitive and vital the technology is. The move underscores the growing depth of the Emirati-Israeli relationship.

Edge-owned Caracal, the UAE’s only small-arms manufacturer, is where steel meets shoulder. Former special-forces operators test rifles in live-fire bays before dispatch. Firearms made and tested here are used by German and Indian special forces, among others. These are what the company calls “mission-proven” products. At nearby Nimr, the UAE’s leading maker of armoured military vehicles, production lines have reportedly been adapted to prioritise urgent wartime requirements. “The UAE as an end user is very demanding,” says one manager. “It makes us step up our game.” A few kilometres away, at Abu Dhabi’s national shipyard, giant naval vessels sit at various stages of completion. Some are destined for export, others for Emirati forces.

For years, the UAE was a consumer of Western technology, whether in defence, aviation or infrastructure. Now it wants to be seen as a producer and exporter in its own right. The conflict has exposed another side of the country – one built less on glamour and more on infrastructure, energy and defence. “People saw the superficial side,” says Al Zaabi. “The big buildings, the nice economy. But what has become abundantly clear is that all of that is built on a very strong foundation.”

Treasure hunters: Seven industry specialists behind the art auction block

Are your walls looking a little bare? Is your furniture failing to elicit effusive praise from your dinner-party guests? Perhaps it’s time to refresh the objects with which you surround yourself. Whatever the scope or scale, collecting can be both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying. But where to start? Here, seven art and design aficionados share their perspectives on the current state of the market and what it takes to build a great collection – including where to source a megalodon.

1.
Yü-Ge Wang, the auctioneer on a bid to bring art collecting to a new generation

We speak to the woman holding the gavel at Christie’s auction house on the art of reading a room, and the thrills and spills of the auction world. Read the full story here.

2.
‘Posters are more than just images on paper.’ Susan Reinhold, the poster dealer elevating prints to fine-art status

After acquiring her first-ever vintage poster more than three decades ago, Reinhold has been on a mission to revamp the image of the printed medium. Read the full story here.

3.
Thinking of starting your own art collection? Design Miami CEO Jen Roberts has some tips for you

The CEO behind the world’s premier collectable-design platform shares her insights on the future of the market, and collecting for the love of art rather than as an investment. Read the full story here.

4.
Art advisor Yuki Terase on how to build a great collection in the digital age

The powerhouse art advisor who set a new benchmark in the sale of contemporary Asian art at Sotheby’s outlines shifting trends in the art world and finding value in historical narratives. Read the full story here.

5.
Antiquities collector James Perkins invites guests at Parnham Park to holiday among dinosaur fossils

The UK collector is restoring Dorset’s 16th-century manor house after a fire in 2017 destroyed the property, transforming it into a hospitality destination where ancient creatures take centre stage. Read the full story here.

6.
Anthony Gallery founder Easy Otabor on his cross-genre approach to collecting artwork

For the Chicago-based gallerist and collector, collecting is an act of ‘building bridges’ between creative disciplines – as well as artists and communities. Read the full story here.

7.
Collector by chance: How Pertti Männistö became one of the world’s most accomplished Alvar Aalto archivists

For the Finnish furniture collector, staying true to his interests and following his instincts was the key to amassing a collection even larger than Finland’s Alvar Aalto Museum. Read the full story here.

JUNE

Copenhagen
3daysofdesign

Northern Europe’s most significant design festival encourages collectors to take a thoughtful approach with this year’s motto, “Make this moment matter”. Cycle between venues, stopping off for the odd kanelsnegl, to make the most of all that Copenhagen has to offer.
3daysofdesign.dk

New York
Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Auction
Phillips’s flagship contemporary sale is the prime hunting ground for postwar masters and fresh discoveries.
phillips.com

Basel
Art Basel
The original Art Basel event continues to be a central meeting point for the art world every June. As well as checking out almost 300 galleries, make time for satellite fairs Liste and Volta.
artbasel.com

JULY

Saint-Tropez
PAD Saint-Tropez
The French Riviera debut of pad design fair will fill Place des Lices with about 20 top galleries showcasing both historical and contemporary works.
padesignart.com

SEPTEMBER

Rio de Janeiro
ArtRio
The 16th edition of ArtRio offers a comprehensive introduction to the burgeoning Latin American art market.
artrio.com

OCTOBER

London
Frieze London & Frieze Masters
As autumn arrives, Frieze London and Frieze Masters will bring together contemporary artists, collectable objects and historic masterpieces.
frieze.com

Paris
Design Miami Paris
The French capital will be a key destination for collectors in autumn, when this fair – timed to overlap with Art Basel Paris – opens in L’hôtel de Maisons.
designmiami.com

NOVEMBER

Dubai
Dubai Design Week
The Middle East’s most important design event has a focus on installations and commissions from the region.
dubaidesignweek.ae

Lagos
ART x Lagos
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, West Africa’s buzziest art fair has a multidisciplinary programme spanning music, film, design, art and literature.
artxlagos.com

Kanazawa
Kogei Art Fair Kanazawa
The 10th edition of Japan’s only art fair dedicated to crafts gathers 42 galleries showing contemporary work from the country and beyond.
kogei-artfair.jp

Further reading:
The art of collecting, and why people do it
Art collecting in the age of artificial intelligence
The London art director collecting Earth’s rarest sculptures: Meteorites