Some say: ? Cafes are a refuge for restless souls in the city, a healing camp, a place where destiny begins, and a place that feels like home. Strolling through the streets of Shanghai, you will find that there are especially many cafes. According to statistics, there are already 8,000 cafes in Shanghai, twice as many as in Beijing, ranking first in the world. However, do you know which of these 8,000-plus cafes is the oldest?
It's the Donghai Cafe on Dianchi Road near the Bund. It's a store that many of Shanghai's older generation remember fondly, and it's where many people first learned to drink coffee. The Donghai Café dates back to 1934, when it was first opened as the Mars Café by Soviet Jews. A product of the colonial period, Donghai Café is very much a reflection of the old cafes in Europe, from the red brick walls on the outside to the European retro style of the interior, to the structure of the menu, which includes drinks, desserts and light meals. It serves coffee and western food, has a western-style revolving staircase inside, and is often packed. In those days, it was fashionable for young people to talk about their friends and love affairs, and to meet for coffee in the East China Sea!
Don't look at today's Shanghai coffee shops all over the place, the early 1900s FFC cafes blossomed in the scene can also be reproduced, after the founding of the country to the early days of reform and opening up the period of time, Shanghai's cafes can be really rare. Nanjing West Road, Tongren Road area of the Desheng Coffee Coffee Company after the establishment of the state-run Shanghai Coffee Factory are fast becoming the memory of the ancient period of coffee history, Donghai Café this resounding name is y imprinted in the minds of many people of the previous generation, it is absolutely 40 years ago on the Shanghai Bund the hottest cafe. 1980 Donghai Café around the menu is: clear curry 10 cents 8 cents, milk curry 20 cents 3 cents, the top of the ice cream coffee is also only 50 cents! Ice cream coffee was also only 51 cents; red braised beef was 1 yuan and 10 cents, fried pork chops were 1 yuan and 80 cents, country gumbo was 27 cents, and meal packs were 6 cents.
In 2007, Donghai Cafe closed its doors for business restructuring on East Nanjing Road. Later, with the return of Central Plaza, the Shanghai Edition Hotel made Jiangxi Road come alive. After a 12-year absence, the legendary Donghai Café was also resurrected by DedaGROUP, a Deda restaurant, in 2019 and opened on the corner of Dianchi Road.
Even though it's reopened in a new location, walking into Donghai Café still makes you feel like you're back in old Shanghai in a second! The new store is located on the ground floor of a protected old building on the Bund, and once you walk in, it's as if you've walked into the living room of an old foreign house, with the elegance and gentleness of the Republican era pervading everywhere, and the imprints of the times remaining in every place. Black and white mosaic floor, siding, fireplace, old furniture, old chandelier? A strong sense of the era comes out. Inside the waiter is also a tone of Shanghai uncle, a mouthful of standard Shanghainese, not humble. Sitting inside the guests are mostly Shanghai locals, there are many older aunts and uncles here to talk, eat once young to eat the flavor, face with a happy smile.
The details of the store show the retro feeling of the passage of time, and every little corner is worth stopping to see. We each ordered a cup of coffee, a chicken breast korma with cheese, and a chocolate lava, a popular item in the store. I didn't realize that the plate is quite fashionable and innovative, the product is unexpectedly very good, rare is not expensive. 30 or so the price of a cup of coffee, in Shanghai is a very common heart, plus snacks per capita 40 a 50 will be able to handle the afternoon tea on the Bund.