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King Butterfly Coffee is undeniably the mentor-level trailblazer of Chiayi’s coffee scene. One of the biggest coffee-world events in Chiayi in 2019 was the triumphant return of Roi Cafe—King Butterfly. The hipster boss, once a prodigal son, answered his fans’ call by settling into the second floor of the “Hardware Warehouse” in the Chiayi Cultural & Creative Industries Park, exuding the mellow depth of a blade honed for ten years. Built in 1930, the Jia-Chiu Hardware Warehouse was once the tallest building in Chiayi City and is now registered as a municipal historic site. To achieve the deep hues and texture of a classical oil painting, the designer mixed colors under varying lights countless times before satisfaction was reached; when the afternoon sun slants through the horizontal windows, the light on the red wall glows like Bordeaux under lamplight, making it the “drunkenly beautiful” coffee-in-a-winery in all Taiwan! In recent years King Butterfly Coffee has moved into even more professional roasting upgrades: beans hail from major world origins plus a small lot from Alishan. Proprietor Lao Wu, a photographer by trade, is also one of Chiayi’s most accomplished coffee roasters. He believes a café’s flagship product should be something abstract, merely expressed through the tangible medium of coffee. When in Chiayi and craving the beautiful marriage of coffee and urban culture, King Butterfly comes with the highest recommendation. No. 616, Zhongshan Rd. W., Chiayi City, 2F, Bldg. F 09-0389-8995 10:00–18:00, closed Mon. & Tue. https://www.facebook.com/roicafe