Business / Showa’s owners prepare to bid emotional farewell to ‘wonderful’ customers
Japanese-themed café set to close its doors at end of October
“I DON’T think we’ll get the same experience anywhere else than Shetland”.
Showa Coffee House will close its doors for the final time at the end of this month, just over a year after opening.
The popular Japanese-themed bakery and café has quickly established itself as one of Lerwick’s most popular street stops, with its trademark fluffy pancakes, ever-changing menu of sweet treats and freshly made coffee keeping people coming back for more.
So there was shock and sadness when owners Terence Tsao and Emilu Hasegawa announced last month they would be packing up their lucky cats and moving the whole business to Glasgow.
Speaking to Shetland News this week, Tsao said it had been an extremely difficult decision – but one being made for the right reasons.
“I’ve got family who’ve moved recently to Glasgow, so that’s the main reason,” he said.
“It was a difficult decision, because we only opened a year ago and we’ve felt the love from the people here.
“We all love it here. If my family weren’t moving to Glasgow, we would definitely still have kept going.”
Tsao and Hasegawa are a team of two powering Showa, with master barista Tsao at the front and Hasegawa the expert baker in the back.
Running an increasingly popular coffee shop, serving food as well as hot drinks, with just two people has not been easy for the pair.
Their path to opening Showa was unconventional. The pair had never run a coffee shop before taking on the Commercial Road space, but came to Lerwick harbouring high hopes of offering something different to locals.
“I would do coffee sometimes for friends, so I knew how to make coffee – but it’s completely different to run you own shop,” Tsao said.
“Emi is really good at baking, and so good with the creative stuff in here. I don’t know how she can do it.
“We just do our best.”
They opened Showa last August, and Tsao readily admitted that it had been a baptism of fire for the pair – describing it as “chaos” at times.
But he said the overwhelmingly positive public response from day one had kept them going.
“They all treated us so kindly, even in the beginning,” he said.
“They gave us so much patience even though it was sometimes chaos, but they just kept waiting and still gave us good feedback.”
Tsao said they had been overrun in recent weeks with regulars desperate to bid a fond farewell before they head south, as well as from the usual passing trade and wool week tourists.
“I don’t think we’ll get the same experience anywhere else than Shetland,” he told Shetland News.
“We’re going to miss all the wonderful people.
“They keep coming back, there’s so many regulars – they’re more like a friend than a customer.
“So many people say, ‘you better let me know where you’re going’ so they can come and visit us again.
“We really appreciate that, we’re really grateful for that.”
Tsao and Hasegawa have put their plans for their Glasgow business on ice until after Showa is closed, with the pair unsure on where their next venture will go and what it will look like.
“We’re going to take a short break before we start looking,” Tsao said.
He admitted the last year at Showa had passed quickly, adding it had been “too fast maybe”.
“There’s loads of things we need to consider,” he said of their Glasgow spot.
“There’s lots of coffee shops there, there’s a really strong coffee culture.
“We want a good location, but we also want to consider what type of coffee shop we would like to do – bigger or smaller.
“It’s not going to happen this year.”
As the pair prepare to shut their doors for the final time later this month, Tsao admitted he gets “emotional” when he thinks about the overwhelming reaction they have had from people since the news of their closure was announced.
“They’ve given us so much love, and when I read all the comments I was just like ‘wow’,” he said.
“I expected people to be shocked because we only opened last year, but I wasn’t expecting the way people reacted.
“People love to come here, they love the vibes, the atmosphere, and we really appreciate that.”
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