Disko Coffee sits tucked into half of 63 Dickson St., next to community staple, Phidon Pens.
The cafe provides the basics—coffee, cold drinks and some baked goods—but has a large selection of magazines for browsing and buying.
What started as an online store eventually grew to a physical location. Arman Duggal, founder and owner of Disko Coffee, founded the online store to build a brand and then a physical location. He created the space with the intentional nature of in-person browsing in mind.
”The way we browse for books and magazines, in person versus online is perhaps more intentional…We might spend like five to ten minutes reading an article or reading a few pages because there’s no other distractions,” he said.
Duggal injected his own personality into the store with small touches like a Manchester United flag near the register and Indian claymen spread across the store.
He said the store is like an extension of his own living room, a place for people to be outside of their work and home.
”It’s a place to come for 30 minutes or an hour to just free yourself from those distractions and just [hang] out, especially like coming out of the pandemic,” he said. “And I think more than ever people are or have been craving that social interaction but just like a place to go outside of their home to either work for a little bit or to catch up with friends and family.”
The space was designed by Brett Paulin with much input by Duggal. He said he aimed to create a space that was an extension of his home.
”I didn’t really have like have an image in my mind of what the space would look like; it was more so just more so like a feeling I had,” Duggal said. “And it’s that feeling that I have when I’m in my own home or my parents’ home or grandparents’, like, comfort and that’s sort of what I wanted to achieve.”
Duggal spent many years working at the Phidon Pens, owned by his mother, Mano Duggal. There, he cultivated a love for stationery, books and binding. As a teenager, he began collecting magazines.
”What draws me to magazines, like initially is the paper and how they’re made, how they’re put together…[and] interacting with it, I find, to me is the most compelling,” he said.
”Magazines are a great way to open up your mind to things that you are, you wouldn’t typically be exposed to…because you don’t there’s like no pressure to sort of read it start to finish!Xit’s there when you need it when you need inspiration,” Duggal said.
Considering his experience working extensively at Phidon Pens, Duggal learned much about running a business and managing a team from his mother. His Cambridge location is largely thanks to his family and the presence of his mother’s business next door. His background in helping run a small business as well as hospitality guided his decision to open the cafe.
”I really enjoyed hosting and bringing people together. And I feel like coffee is the best way to facilitate that,” he said.
Although it has only been open for a few months, Disko Coffee is fast making a space for itself in the community. For example, Duggal will often open the cafe after hours for students from the nearby University of Waterloo School of Architecture.
”I want to continue to engage with that student body and offer the space to them whenever they want for like exhibitions or workshops or just social gatherings. I think it’s a very important demographic for me here in Cambridge,” he said.
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