Beyond the Brew: How Café Design Is Becoming Part of the Experience

Café culture has changed quite a bit over the years. A café is no longer just about good coffee, food, and a place to sit for a while. Today, the space itself has become part of the experience. People are drawn to places that have a certain character, tell a story, and make them want to stay a little longer. This has made design an increasingly important part of how cafés build their identity and connect with their guests.

For Jacob’s Brew House, this idea became especially relevant while creating its first outlet in Jaipur. With the city’s café culture growing rapidly, the team wanted to create a space that felt distinct rather than follow the familiar café formats centred around greenery, open spaces, and comfort. The intention was to build a café with a clear story, one where the architecture, interiors, food, and coffee could all come together as one experience.

The result was a vintage garage space turned into a café, designed by architect and designer Kanika Gupta Wahi, Founder of House of Kian. The concept was built around creating a space that went beyond aesthetics and had a narrative of its own. Inspired by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob’s architectural legacy, Jacob’s Brew House brings together heritage references with industrial textures and contemporary details.

The exterior sets the tone with a rustic, industrial façade, cotton-textured elements, and an 18-foot chimney. Inside, the experience changes into something warmer and more inviting, with brick, cement, and wood combined with refined finishes and British retro-inspired colours from the 1980s. The contrast between the two spaces is intentional, giving the café a sense of discovery as you move through it.

That sense of discovery continues through the smaller details. A freezer-inspired door, playfully called the “peezer,” adds an unexpected touch, while the private dining rooms draw from vintage recording studios and old workspaces, complete with typewriters and nostalgic artefacts. The vintage elements are functional and thoughtfully reinterpreted, making them part of the café’s story rather than simply decorative pieces.

The design is also closely connected to the larger experience at Jacob’s Brew House. Its specialty coffee programme, globally inspired food, and plans for tastings, workshops, and creative collaborations are all intended to bring people together.

For Jacob’s Brew House, the idea is simple: a café should give people more than something to eat or drink. It should give them a space they enjoy being in, a story they can discover, and an experience they remember even after the last cup is finished.