Capital Caff: SKP Valentino Café Pop-up Is All Glam And Forgettable Coffee

Don't talk to me until I've read Capital Caff: Your guide to the latest in coffee happenings around Beijing.

Recently there’s been some fairly legitimate controversy with a certain celebrity who had some words for us plebs. If you yearn for entrepreneurial success and the wealth that comes with it, it’s really easy according to this celebrity: get your f—ing a— up and work. Quite the rich piece of advice, for plenty of reasons that exceed my word count for this piece.

Tone-deaf statements aside, places like SKP at Dawanglu lend themselves well to reflections on lavishness. For those who have access to material luxury, it probably informs their entire experiences and expectations and may even only feel natural. From the outside, though, it looks somewhat one-dimensional.

At this exclusive, five-storey shopping mall located in Beijing CBD, stores were neither crowded nor empty. In a place like this, are all patrons truly there for business? Who’s there just looking round, much like you? Faced with this discourse of wealth, you’re presented with the impenetrable, vague notion of something that is meant to be desired though it is superfluous and surely unattainable. Luxury becomes opaque at best, and subtly hostile at worst.

You’re reading Capital Caff, so I was there for the coffee — Valentino’s coffee. Right now, this Italian luxury fashion house is having quite the presence at SKP. A make-up counter, their boutique and, only until Mar 27, a themed space at the SKP Rendez-Vous Café on the fourth floor, all because of their new fragrance collection: Born in Roma: Yellow Dream. Let’s dive right in!

As you approach SKP Rendez-Vous, you’re greeted by an unmistakable installation. Born in Roma: Yellow Dream is crafted around a bold, singular dash of yellow, aiming to evoke a “dialogue between past, present and future” through a wide palette of scents for him and her.

I won’t slap the whole copy here, but think of concepts such as joie de vivre, vibrant vignettes of Roman splendour and much more. Brews and treats are there to round it all up. I only got a cup of their eponymous Yellow Dream Coffee, branded as 白日梦境 (báirìmèng jìng, RMB 58) in Chinese, but if you want indulgence, add to your order a slice of Valentino cake and let us know what it’s like in the comments.

Here’s the thing, I’d actually buy the fragrances. The artful bottles at the reach of your nostrils on every table revealed lovely scents, full of nuance yet far from being overpowering. The coffee, though? Your standard latte, with a cocoa Valentino logo sprinkled on top. Granted, this cuppa joe is not necessarily about the beans as much as it is about earning some 打卡 dǎkǎ status.

You made it this far, so you may as well get the full experience. Scan the QR code on your table, follow the chain of free sign-ups and go to the café staff to get your voucher for a small complimentary gift redeemable on the first floor. On a side note, Rendez-Vous is actually a fairly pleasant space.

Visit the art gallery on the side, browse the coffee table books and go to the back for some decent urban views. Outside, Beijing was thawing from the outrageous March snowfall. This mundane landscape, too, featured pops of yellow. Meituan yellow, but yellow nonetheless.

At the make-up counter, the attentive clerk briefly ran with me the whole gamut of Valentino products. From what I understood, this is Beijing’s first branch of the brand. Of course, I also got my — you guessed it — complimentary yellow bag.

On my way out and towards the subway, I checked the contents: A promotional magazine, some perfume samples and an amusing set of cards. Branded with the fragrance’s name, they imparted a series of enigmatic, feel-good sentences. Pursuing your dream is part of your narrative. Memories of the night become another new beginning.

Think a sophisticated cousin of fortune cookies. They spoke of a vague, distant something, perhaps utterly unattainable. Gullible creatures as we are, we chase it endlessly.

Valentino x SKP RDV Rendez-Vous Café
D4020, A Block, 4F, RDV Rendez-Vous, Beijing SKP, 87 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District
朝阳区建国路87号北京SKP4层A区D4020

READ: Capital Caff: In High Spirits with a Cup of Moutai Latte

Images: Ana Padilla Fornieles