Cookies for All: Kyoto’s sustainable cookie cafe ovgo Baker Nijo St.

ovgo Baker Nijo St. is a delight to visit. Nestled in the quaint Kyoto streets just north of the shopping street Teramachi, this cookie specialist offers delectable American cookies that are sustainable in more ways than one.

ovgo believes in making “Cookies for All,” offering vegan cookies! This not only increases food diversity in a way that everyone can eat them, but it also reduces the impact on the environment. ovgo’s American cookies are 100% plant-based, organic, and locally produced. Being a Kyoto store, you’ll find Kyoto-only flavors too: Japanese cinnamon and Hojicha Tea.

Renovated from an old machiya, you might see the bustling of the staff preparing a fresh batch of cookies or cleaning the garden. The place is family-friendly and even allows pets to enter. The warmth of the store comes through the veneer of the traditional atmosphere of the townhouse.

Hodo from ovgo Baker Nijo St. gives us insight into the sustainable workings of the store and inspires us with how “doing good” really does “taste good.”

Delivering delicious cookies to everyone

As you enter the store and peer behind the counter, you are greeted by the warm welcome of the staff and a slogan on the wall: “Doing good tastes so good.” The staff work hard to uphold the store and its sustainable efforts.

Hodo shares, “The staff often have brainstorming sessions to create something that leverages local and representative ingredients. We want to create something that is affordable and desirable. So we study how ingredients work, do cost analysis, conduct trials and errors, and more.”

These efforts have allowed ovgo Baker Nijo St. to create Kyoto-only flavors, like Japanese cinnamon, and Hojicha Tea. While the chocolate chips and brownies remain steadfast in popularity, these unique flavors have earned permanent positions on the menu, and the staff may update the menu with newly discovered tastes in the future.

From the exterior, we see how the store fits nicely into the rustic atmosphere of Kyoto streets. On the other hand, the interior has a delightful youthful vibe.

“There is a tendency for people to remodel Kyoto machiya with chicness and calmness. ovgo decided instead to bring out an air of positivity with a pop and happy atmosphere. It’s a match between Kyoto and ovgo’s spirits.”

And visitors love it! Near the staircase you can see a portion of the collections of messages left by tourists from all over the world, like France and Ukraine, expressing their joys in having found ovgo Baker.

Vegan cookies in Kyoto without food waste

While there are certainly vegan options in Kyoto if we search hard for them, veganism hasn’t really caught on yet in Kyoto. That doesn’t hold ovgo Baker back from wanting to introduce their cookies here.

Yet, even though ovgo prides itself on providing vegan cookies, there is no in-your-face promotion about veganism. The customers come simply because of their delicious cookies.

“Veganism is probably not the main thought on customers’ minds. They are attracted by the stylish exterior and like the cute atmosphere. We don’t aim to “sell” the concept of vegan, but instead make cookies that our customers find cute and delicious to eat. The realization that our cookies are vegan comes after. We find that to be an easy first step for people to learn about veganism. Of course, we’ve had tourists who were elated to learn how we were 100% vegan.”

In fact, it goes beyond just a first step to discovering veganism. It also acts as a first step to seeing the other sustainable gears grinding behind the works. More importantly, however, is that customers learn that even though buying a cookie seems like a small action, the accumulation of their small actions can scale and address social and environmental issues.

ovgo also takes care to eliminate any food waste.

“We hardly dispose of food at ovgo Baker Nijo St. Firstly, the thought of discarding any cookies is unthinkable for the staff. Even if we have leftovers towards the end of the day, we find ways to sell them or have the staff bring them home to consume. It helps that the cookies don’t expire and remain edible for three days. Even then, we prepare the cookies in small batches to restock as they don’t take long to prepare.

“We do have waste we can’t avoid, like baking sheets and tissues, but we are taking out waste that is only a fraction of what other food establishments were producing. We also try our best to reduce waste in minute aspects of the cafe.”

A workplace that cares about happiness for all

ovgo Baker is a B Corp certified corporation, which means it is one of the most sustainable companies in the world. They have been certified sustainable in five key impact areas, including workers, community, environment, governance, and customers.

Without bringing attention, it is easy to miss how sustainability permeates ovgo’s workplace too. Behind one of their core values, “Happiness for All,” includes happiness for the staff too, believing in values such as fun, willingness to experiment, and valuing the individual.

“For me, ovgo has a stress-free environment that is filled with purpose. There are various staff utilizing their different talents, like some good with art, some good with numbers. We even shared personality test results to see our fit with each other! There is certainly a playful mood.

“It is also easy to share our opinions without fear of rejection. Our ideas get praised, and we are free to propose how we’d like to achieve them. Even if something goes wrong, we’d have feedback sessions to find improvement points and get guidance on any wrongdoings.”

A common question would be, “What about profits?” Perhaps that is the key aspect that separates a common organization from one driven by purpose.

“There is no talk of profit at all! Of course, there is an understanding that we are ultimately a business, and we work towards it. For example, if sales were down, we’d figure out what went wrong.

“But ovgo is likely to fail if we solely focus on profit. Instead, we think about how to achieve a success that we can harvest from. At the end of the day, the experience we receive whether it be good times or bad times becomes our asset, and that’s what I think about when working here.

“We do what we do not because we are a B Corp company, or because it’s a must seeing how the world is. Rather, we are here because we like what we do and are free to find better ways to achieve it.”

This is reflected in ovgo’s belief in “freedom by responsibility,” to treasure each staff’s desire to achieve something, and to communicate how they want to achieve it. ovgo doesn’t value part-timers differently too, believing that ovgo is made up of every staff and member.

The brand has successfully created a safe space where every individual feels safe to utilize their own strengths in helping ovgo build a community. We see a very successful combination of trust in employees while leveraging each employee’s individuality.

“I never thought such a work environment existed beyond the standard salaryman worker (office worker). I am allowed self-expression, and it gives me the drive to continue working at ovgo, while knowing there are good colleagues working with me.”

What awaits the future of ovgo Baker Nijo St.

“The Kyoto store is quieter than in Tokyo, providing a kind, easy-to-enter atmosphere for everyone, but I want to share our cookies with more people in the Kansai region and foreign travelers. Especially for foreign travelers, they are more attuned towards veganism and there is an interesting intersection between American cookies and Japanese culture here. We also want to do more interesting things too, like creating lighter tasting varieties for summer.”