Blanko Mini Market Café and Lifestyle Store is Your One-Stop Shop for Design-Led Gifts

With our shopping-malls reaching restaurant and café saturation point, it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd. Blanko Mini Market has attempted to make their mark with a four-in-one combo – it's a café, a bookstore, a stationery shop, and furniture store.

The interior lets the multiple products do the talking, with a white minimalist-style dominating the large space. Half of the store is given over to the café, while the rest is divided into a small bookstore featuring indie magazines about design, and an area to display stationary and furniture.

If you're of a lazy disposition and tired of schlepping around town to pick up gifts, home decor and more, Blanko is a great one-stop shop for everything. Stock up on snacks, cushions, kitchenware and stationery from trendy bands including Seletti from Italy, Hay from Denmark, Hightide, and Arita 2016, and Aozora from Japan, among many more. We wish we'd known about it before the holidays, as it would be the perfect place to hit up for a pre-Christmas panic-shop.

After stocking up on well-designed trinkets, take a rest in the café. Aside from assorted choices (RMB 28-45) of tea and coffee, they offer an afternoon tea for two at a reasonable RMB 168, which includes a pot of tea and lots of sweet and savory nibbles. We especially liked the bacon and spinach tarts, which were suitably cheesy; as well as the floral flavor of the rose and yogurt cheesecake. Their sweet treats are created in-house by their young pastry chef Bai Miao, who is aiming for a non-traditional French style with a Chinese twist.

Open for less than half a year, Blanko’s multitasking modus operandi is popular among the youth, and almost all the seats were taken on a weekday afternoon when we paid a visit. 

With new shopping malls such as WF Central and Hopsun One attracting lots of attention, Chaoyang Joy City isn't resting on its laurels, but putting up a fight. As well as Blanko, popular Japanese lifestyle store Gudetama Egg Factory has popped-up on the first floor. With a fun theme and interesting products to play around with, it's worth checking out if you go shopping in Joy City in the coming weeks. 

Blanko Mini Market
Daily 10am-10pm. 5/F, Joy Yard, Chaoyang Joy City, Qingnian Lu, Chaoyang District (8557 4651)
朝阳区青年路朝阳大悦城5层悦界

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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos courtesy of Blanko, Tracy Wang