About

Haiku Lou is a small café. Cozy and laid back, the drinks solid every time, and one thing on the menu you didn't know you liked yet.

A haiku is three lines: short, long, short. The menu reads the same way — barley tea at the center, coffee and matcha at the edges. The Lou is Louisville, where we're rooted.

We're building the room the way you'd build a kitchen you actually want to sit in: wood, linen, clay, a chair you won't want to leave. Kids are welcome the way they're welcome in a good home — a high chair, a shelf of books, nobody flinching.

Whatever you order, it's made the same careful way. Tuesday at 7:40 or Saturday at noon. Solid cup, every time.

Then there's the barley tea. It's roasted barley, brewed like tea — think iced tea, a little sweet, kind of toasty, no caffeine. Everybody can drink it. It's been an everyday drink in Japan and Korea for a long time (mugicha, there); ours is roasted in house from Kentucky barley, which is why it tastes the way it does.

Until the doors open, you'll find us at Louisville farmers markets. Come say hello and let us hand you a cup.