What started as a kitchen space for an ambitious custom fondant cake shop has morphed into a well-manicured café serving pour-over single origin coffee, fresh house-made juice concoctions and scaled-down versions of its beautifully crafted sweet treats.

The journey to find Story Café is the first indication that the space used to function as kitchen that was never actually intended to garner much foot traffic. The long, narrow blocks of grey brick buildings that line Yi’anmen, a commercial area south of Sihui that is only just on its way to becoming a centre of upmarket fashion-conscious studios and boutiques, doesn’t exactly strike us as major destination.

The shop, which blends in with the muted brick motif of its surroundings, is easy to miss, and we we’re disappointed to find the space entirely devoid of fantastically decorated cakes. What we find, however, were high, whitewashed ceilings and pains of frosted glass that flood the airy space with a soft natural light while obscuring the less-than-idyllic street beyond.

Cubes of hardwood and glass filled with creeping vines descend from the ceiling as a virtual forest of tiny potted plants. It gives the impression of sipping coffee in a terrarium. We opt for a carafe of pour-over coffee and an adorable hibiscus cream puff. The puff lacks the visual complexity of a several hundred RMB fondant cake, but the sweet herbal taste of the cream goes down well with the chocolaty brew. For the caffeine averse, a mug of rose petal- and lychee-infused tea or mango and white grape juice will satisfy.In spite of the beautifully transformed studio, without the stunning cakes, Story Café is a few pages short.Address: Block 16, Area C 1 Huihe Nanjie Yi'anmen, Gaobeidian South bank Chaoyang District 朝阳区高碑店南岸义安门C区16排惠河南街1号Source: timeoutbeijing.com