Written by Jordan Michelman.
The drive to someday own your own cafe is a never-ending source of inspiration. Truly, this path takes all kinds of people and regularly leads in new and interesting directions. And so it was a delightful discovery—if not a total surprise—to learn that the team behind Niconeco Zakkaya, Manhattan’s foremost cat-themed Japanese stationery store, had opened a second location in Brooklyn featuring a full-on cafe component on the western edge of Williamsburg.
I have long been a Niconeco fan, and have made stops at their original East Village location a regular part of my travel routine in New York for many years. This place maintains that dream spirit of an independent, creative New York City shopping experience, a stationary lover’s dream in just 400 square feet, offering everything from pens and journals to washi tape and home decor. (Their KATA KATA ceramic cat tray holds pride of place in my living room.) Now in 2025, the brand’s owner and founder, Siming Vautin, has followed up on her lifelong dream of opening a cafe, expanding the Niconeco vision to a new, 2000 square foot shop called Loaf On Paper, featuring a full-service coffee shop experience anchored by a trusty two-group La Marzocco Linea PB espresso machine.
I chatted with Siming Vautin to learn a little more about achieving her dream of cafe ownership, and how this new model fits into her vision for a cat-themed stationary experience.
Hello Siming! It’s so nice to talk—I just love your original store, and congratulations on the new space. Was it always your dream to open a coffee bar? How did this combination of a cafe and a stationery shop come about?
Hello and thank you! You know, this has really always been my dream. Even before I opened Niconeco, I had wondered if I should do a cafe or stick to my original path with stationery. My shop was an online store for a few years before we opened our first brick-and-mortar. In the end, I chose stationery only for the first shop, because it was so small, but I always kept the idea of combining these two ideas together and creating a stationery cafe. It really was my original dream to do both in one space.
Now that we have the cafe open, I think the two ideas have worked together so well. At Loaf On Paper, people come in and shop for stationery, and then they can sit right down there in the cafe and journal on whatever they might have purchased from the shop while hanging out with friends. Seeing people drinking coffee and journaling right in the cafe has been such a nice scene. People are really using the space so nicely. You can buy a notebook and then stay and hang out, order a drink and a pastry, and it just feels so natural.
That’s fabulous, and it makes total sense. I’m curious, though—are you also starting to see cafe regulars who come to the shop primarily as a cafe first? Or do most of your guests come first and foremost for the stationary store experience?
You know, having morning regulars for is really happening now in a great way too. The area of Williamsburg we are in has a lot of options, and honestly, it took about three months after we opened for people to start noticing us for the morning hours. But now it has started getting really busy in the morning, and the seating is filling up after 9am when we open. It has definitely been going really well, and we are getting more and more regular customers from the neighborhood. This is so important because if you want to succeed in the area, you can’t just rely on visitors from elsewhere coming to visit the store—we are like any other cafe in this way; we, the stationery, absolutely rely on our regulars, and it has been wonderful to see this taking shape.
Please tell me a little more about the coffee you’re serving and your approach to the cafe portion of Loaf on Paper.
We serve coffee from a Brooklyn roaster called Devocion. I was originally searching for roasters from elsewhere, but Devocion has a cafe in our neighborhood, and so I thought, why not stay local and go to them? I like their coffee, it’s super fresh, and they have been super helpful to work with in terms of taking care of us very well and supporting us with any maintenance needs.
Our coffee menu includes a really classic espresso drink menu with cappuccinos and lattes, but we also have some specialty drinks, including a housemade Earl Grey syrup that is very popular, and a housemade pumpkin spice syrup for fall. It has been very fun to embrace the creative side of the menu, and I hope this will continue to grow. We use a La Marzocco Linea PB two-group machine for everything.
I have to ask about cats. At your website, there are currently more than 500 items featuring cats, and at your original store, the cat vibes are very strong indeed. At the Loaf on Paper cafe, are there any cat-themed drinks?
Well, we do call our cappuccino a “cat-puccino” on the menu! And our space has so many more cat-themed items than at the original store. Our Brooklyn space is four times larger than our original space.
Visit Loaf on Paper at their website and on Instagram.
