Step into a comic book with 2D-style Riverview café

A sneak peek at Riverview’s Tambayan Café's ahead of its soft opening.

Tambayan Café will let customers step into a comic book with its 2D-theme when it has its opening in Riverview, N.B., this month.

“It’s all over Korea, Japan. It’s also booming in the Philippines, and I’ve seen one in Toronto,” says owner Mary Anne Catipon. “So we thought maybe bringing something cool around here in Riverview because we want to fill the gap and we want everyone to experience as well what’s trending outside of the province.”

From the moment you walk in, you are immersed in a vibrant world of art.

“Each wall we see here and it’s really significant to me because there’s a story behind each wall,” Catipon says. “Let’s say, at the Paris wall, because we want to travel to Paris and we want to experience the love life. But then we’re unable to do so. And it’s impossible right now to travel around, especially with the huge family size of six. So it’s really expensive for us to travel. But then we thought, let’s bring Paris here.”

The 2D design was inspired by a café in Korea. At Tambayan, a local artist crafted scenes depicting iconic locations like Paris, Dubai and Santorini.

“Because we love traveling, we want to go on road trips and go to places and explore places like kind of a tourist spot,” says Catipon. “We want everyone to experience that without traveling and spending time on the roads.

“If you love bubble teas, or real teas, we have hot and cold iced coffee, flavored iced coffee, caramel macchiato.”

The café is already generating a buzz on social media.

“It’s kind of overwhelming for me because I didn’t expect that,” Catipon says. “To get a huge response and reactions from everyone… We want to surprise the customers and everyone with what we have to offer.”

Tambayan Café’s grand opening is April 26.

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.