When I travel to other cities, one of the fun things is to find a nice local café, as it’s boring just to go to a chain coffee shop you can find anywhere. For people visiting Matsuyama, I want to recommend the Blue Marble, which is conveniently located five minutes’ walk from Matsuyama City Station. You can have a relaxing time with tasty coffee and nice food in between visiting sightseeing spots and shopping.
The Blue Marble is multifaceted; a comfortable café through the day, a bakery in the morning and a bistro in the evening. In fact, Fujiyama-san, the owner and a barista, describes it as “a living-dining room at Sanban-cho” (Sanban-cho is a name of the area the café is located), where customers can spend time as they like, enjoying coffee and food, reading books or chatting. He was fascinated by café culture while living in Sydney, Australia, for about ten years as a freelance photographer for magazines, advertisements, and tourist papers, and that experience led him to the world of coffee. Fujiyama-san opened his café with the hope of spreading authentic café culture where people can converse freely in Matsuyama. Besides Fujiyama-san, Blue Marble is managed by three young staff, each of whom is a specialist of coffee, bread and food.
Blue Marble is always filled with a relaxing atmosphere, framed by big windows that let in natural light. It opens at 7:30 am when workers rush to their offices. Some of them drop by to grab a cup of coffee and bread from the shelf where variety kinds of bread are arranged—vegetable focaccia, chestnut Danish pastry, orange brioche, and so on. The lineup changes seasonally. All the bread is well-prepared and sometimes even innovative. They also serve a muffin breakfast until 10:00 am. Most of the bread is usually sold out by noon.
During lunch hour from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, Blue Marble offers a weekly lunch and a bread lunch. The other day, I went there and had a weekly lunch. The menu was spicy chicken and grilled okra and paprika dressed with mustard mayonnaise sauce, with soup and salad. The chicken was fresh and juicy, and the sauce was a good accent. The portion was just right. On another occasion, I had a focaccia lunch, which came with rillettes, potato potage (it was whipped so it looked like cappuccino and was very creamy), green salad, and a drink. I chose coffee, which was good too. There’s also a fixed menu including curry and a grilled vegetable platter. On weekends, they offer special lunch sets with more elaborate dishes.
If you have extra room or are looking for just a snack, there are attractive desserts such as tiramisu and crème brulée. Try one with espresso, cappuccino, French pressed coffee or other kinds of coffee. The coffee beans are specialty coffees that are carefully selected by the owner, who is the only SCAA-certified cupping judge in the prefecture. (SCAA stands for Specialty Coffee Association of America.) Their coffees are always fresh and aromatic with none of the unpleasantness bitterness which you sometimes get at the chain coffee stores.
In the evening, Blue Marble offers French bistro style food à la carte such as terrine, mushroom salad with ricotta, shoulder pork roast and pasta. If you visit for dinner, I recommend checking if it’s open first, as the whole space is sometimes booked for parties or events.
The menu changes according to the season. Also, they mainly use vegetables and meats grown within the prefecture and produced by farmers they are familiar with, as they value the principle of local production for local consumption.
Although it’s situated downtown, the surrounding environment is rather quiet, so it’s also nice to have lunch or coffee at a table outside on a fine day.
