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| Tose and Eri at their own café 'Two and two' which is their favorite place in Berlin |
When Eri and Tose had the "idea of having our own perfect shop", they opened 'Two and two', a French café and Japanese stationery. "Eri told me she feels home in Berlin since we opened. Same for me..."
The story starts in spring 2010 when I met Eri at a mutual friends' dinner in Berlin-Wedding. She is a painter from Tokyo and she moved to Berlin with her husband 4 years ago. He got a scholarship for Berlin and she followed him. My name is Tose and I'm from Paris with Japanese roots. We became friends easily and each time we met, we would look for the perfect spot for relaxed and tasty meetings. I just arrived in Berlin by coincidence. During a year and a half, my life was both in France and here. Then I decided to stay in Berlin as I met my boyfriend here.
The friendship with
Eri grew well as much as our passion for coffeeshops. Once, more like
a challenge, we came up with the idea of having our own perfect
shop. And from one day to another, in January 2012, we started to
look for a joint.
Berlin offered us the opportunity to start a
totally new profession from scratch. In fact, many parameters led up
to this point.
As foreigners, we have a certain kind of freedom.
We don't feel the burden of the social pressure of our country, of
this country. Self-expats tend to be flexible enough to consider
other careers.
Here, I couldn't work as a costume designer as I
used to do in France. It took me years to get my network, my salary:
in Berlin, there was no way I could get the same position. I had to
reevaluate my possibilities if I wanted to make a living here.
By
meeting new people - Germans, other foreigners - who shared their
experience, we opened-up our vision of our own lives. Actually, when
I saw a young American running her own shop, I thought: if she can do
it, I can too. It encourages you. That's a great emulation I only
found in Berlin so far.
It took me a year to get used to Berlin
though. To go to every neighborhood helped me to be part of the town.
Like when you move into a new flat and need to clean every part of
it. For both Eri and I, at first, Berlin looked very rough, covered
in grafitti and very far from the idea of an European capital. We
have to say that we both first arrived in Neukölln. Nothing to
complain about it, but the gap between Tokyo and Berlin is quite
something.
I still live in this district not far from the Kanal
and it makes me feel like living in a provincial city. In Berlin,
everyday is sunday. I'm not a clubber so I don't feel the heat of the
night. But still, if I want, I can find this high level of wildness
you can't find anymore in Paris. Life is no more a rush or an argue.
Well… until we opened our café! I mean for the rush part! Eri
doesn't have much time to paint anymore. It took a year from zero to
the day of the opening. A friend told us this Mark Twain's quote:
"They didn't know it was impossible, so they did it". It
was exactly that feeling - and we would jump every obstacle (lack of
experience, paperwork, issues with landlord, administration,
renovation, german language!), having only one goal: to open the
coffeeshop. Fortunately, on our way we found support from friends'
advices, the Coffee Circle team (our formidable organic coffee
provider!), father substitute, our men's patience...
When we
opened, we couldn't believe it was real. To us, it was still a
floating idea in our brain. It took me several months to really enjoy
it as our creation. Initially, we had no idea where the café would
bring us besides being happy to bake and make coffee in our own nest.
Eri told me she feels home in Berlin since we opened. Same for me.
And the thing we absolutely didn't expected: meeting people! I
know, this sounds strange as we would run a public space… but
truly, our biggest satisfaction lies in the fact that our customers
are awesome. People we work with. Yes, we're making new friends
here.
Since a few months, I realize, Berlin is kind of the place
to be. So much youth, passion, energy, a will to be different,
quality of live, it's Europe's eldorado. And I feel lucky to be here,
because at first, I didn't really choose Berlin for being Berlin.
To get an insight into the world of 'Two and two', besides their website, the café also has a behind-the-scenes blog full of food and pastries.
