First Look: Say “Maido!” to Maido, the New Coffee and Shokupan Spot by Provider Store and Artificer

I’m writing this from Maido’s window seat, overlooking the never-ending commuter traffic on Flinders Street. My double-shot latte’s in a speckled cup I recognise from Provider Store, and there’s a mix of happy chattering, laptop tapping and shiba inu Pocari’s territorial (and harmless) barking. The space is simple – and simply excellent – and I’ve started every workday morning here since it opened last week.

Maido is the coffee shop born from a collaboration between Sydney businesses Artificer and Provider Store, the first being the Surry Hills-based specialty coffee bar from Dan Yee and Shoji Sasa, and the second Tara Bennett’s design-focused lifestyle shop on Riley Street.

“This space is our office,” Bennett tells Broadsheet of the airy high-ceilinged digs. “We’ve been making candles here for two years, ‘cos we couldn’t make them in Provider Store anymore, and so we just had this huge space. Dan from Artificer is a really good friend and we both love a new project. Within two weeks we had built a cafe.”

The quick fit-out saw a coffee bar replace the candle-making bench, and a glass-walled workshop – ideal for perving on the Provider team where they now pour wax – replaces a storage space in one corner. Rows of white paper flags, that Bennett made herself, hang from the ceiling; Bennett draws Pocari’s mood for the day, displaying it on the counter. Standalone vintage shelves wrap around the walls, stacked with a retail offering reflective of Provider: ceramic dishes and signature candles, bottles of natural Japanese laundry liquid and artful tabletop brooms.

“It has been nice to bring the community into what we do – it’s bringing people into our creative world. You can sit and read a book, or draw a picture, chill out,” says Bennett.

She goes back to Japan regularly on sourcing trips, meeting with small makers and curating a collection of “really beautiful but really practical” pieces. “It’s all about knowing where things have come from and buying better. [At Maido], you’ll have an experience of having a coffee, but the cup that you’re drinking from you can also buy it. You can try it out before it goes home with you.”

That pour will always be Artificer, which joins a small food offering from other Sydney favourites. Mochi brownies from Newtown’s Comeco one day, and layered beauties from the pros at Tokyo Lamington the next. Soon, perfectly toasted shokupan will be in the mix, thanks to Balmuda toasters currently on their way from Osaka. “It’s a steam toaster, so when you put the bread in, you put a little bit of water too. It cooks it so the outside is crispy but the inside’s fluffy,” Bennett says. “We have them at Provider House and it’s a game changer.”

Provider House is the Tasmanian outpost of Provider Store that you can sleep in. “I originally wanted to open more stores, but this market’s hard. The house in Tassie is more like a showroom – it’s like our next store but you can stay. And [Maido] is another reflection of what we do, but you get to see how we make things. Each Provider is cohesive, but all slightly different. Instead of opening the same things over and over again.”

As for the name, “maido” is the sweet word Bennett picked up on one of her frequent trips to Japan. The man who owned a wine bar in Osaka was teaching her local phrases, and maido stuck. “It’s a greeting you say in the morning, in the afternoon and at night,” she says. “So in Feb when I went back, I walked in and was like ‘Maido!’ and he loved it. And I got it right! You can’t say it anywhere else in Japan though, ‘cos they won’t know what it means.

“We thought it would be good if we end up doing wine at night, it’d be fitting for both.”

This writer hopes wine nights eventuate – and will be back for a crisp and fluffy slice of shokupan the moment the Balmudas clear customs.

Maido
7–9 Flinders Street, Surry Hills

Hours:
Tue to Sat 8am–2pm

@maidocoffee