Coffee crowds Suzhou culture

By Li Jian

SUZHOU: Crouching like a warship over the ancient canal in Suzhou, the flagship Dio Coffee near the Wannian Bridge (Everlasting Bridge) is challenging a city whose citizens are proud of their elegant tea culture.

Though a newcomer, which just celebrated its one-year birthday in Suzhou, the cafe is becoming a landmark in the city, where tea was grown, produced and transported to northern parts of the country and overseas in ancient times. The chain is gaining fame, even in the Yangtze River Delta region.

With a giant entrance and glass windows showing the cafe inside, and neon lights shining during night, there is no chance you would miss it.

Unlike the cafes in Europe, which are cozy places for relaxation, Dio in Suzhou is brand new in looks with luxurious furnishing - huge window walls, deliberately designed benches and sofas.

However, Dio tries to add some local taste to its flavours. It is a two-storey copy of a traditional Suzhou house with white walls and black roof. When night falls, the neon lights sculpt the architecture, its silhouette like a young lady standing by the canal wearing shining diamonds.

The interior design has borrowed from the style of famous Suzhou gardens, with small, separate rooms. Anyone walking into the house will be embraced by the golden lighting and warm coffee fragrance.

Wang Yangfa, general manager of Dio Food and Beverage Management Co Ltd, who has expanded Dio's presence all over the country to more than 180 cafes, said Dio is a mixture of the Orient and the West.

"That's why the house has Chinese style outside but a Western cafe inside. We provide Western drinks and food with Chinese-style service," Wang said.

Having been in the business for decades, Taiwan-born Wang has good knowledge of coffee. He ran some of the first coffee chain outlets in China, pre-Starbucks.

You could not miss the wall pictures on both side of the house, copies of Picasso masterpieces. By each bench or sofa, there is a copy of masterpieces by impressionists or the great artists of the Renaissance.

The menus have English names on all the coffees and drinks and Dio offers onion rings, sandwiches and snacks in a Western style.

Dio also offers quality tea and seasonal Chinese food.

As a newcomer to ancient Suzhou, coffee has gradually turned into a fashion and a lifestyle. Cafes are becoming regular haunts for business people and lovers.

"I know people come to the cafe not only for the drinks," Wang said, pointing at the vast coffee house supported with two giant Roman pillars. "They come here to find a quiet place to relax and a place for business talks."

The cafe provides free Internet access. Broadband and cell phone charging machines are available in the cafe which caters for the needs of businessmen and others looking for a quiet place to surf the Internet.

Fu Jinfang, a 27-year-old local newspaper reporter, a regular visitor to the cafe, said the cafe was a good place to work and "an excellent interview room." Fu said he even took his wife to the cafe to settle some household affairs they could not compromise on in their home.

"The cafe can soothe your anxiety and you cannot raise your voice in such a place even when you are quarrelling with your wife," Fu said.

The cafe has become extremely popular amongst different groups.

"The craze for coffee is taking off," Fu said, who is planning to open more coffee shops in Suzhou. "The coffee consumption is on a steep curve upwards."

Dio Coffee
1-3 Xueshi Street, Suzhou
Tel: 0512-6510-8888