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Taipei’s Wen-Luo-Ting Area: Lane/Alley Walking Tours
Roaming the City’s Cultural Landscape
“Wen-Luo-Ting” refers to the community around Wenzhou Street, Roosevelt Road (“Roo” is pronounced “Luo” in Chinese), and Tingzhou Road, a place of university campuses, heritage architecture, indie bookstores, and characterful lane/alley grids. Its rich cultural atmosphere, deepened further with myriad sellers of inexpensive cuisine loved by students, live houses and music shops, specialty cafés along lanes/alleys, teahouses, and eclectic boutiques have made this one of the city’s most distinctive enclaves.
Good Design Institute
This is a space for premium-selection brand goods and at the same time a unique-style café. The interior looks like a retro-style lab, with a black/white color scheme complemented by green plants, creating a clean, fresh feel. Premium designer goods sourced globally are on display, like a mini design exhibition.
Add: 22, Ln. 48, Wenzhou St., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2362-0723 ext. 12 (Closed on Monday.)
TWINE
TWINE is Taiwan’s first store recognized by the World Fair Trade Organization. The owners stock fair-trade local goods sourced from women’s organizations around the globe, emphasizing eco-friendly, non-polluting production, giving each item symbolic significance along with their quality handmade texture and craftsmanship.
Add: 10, Aly. 2, Ln. 74, Wenzhou St., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2368-8773
HEE Porcelain
A brand established by two porcelain-passionate ladies, the goods here – table utensils of concise, stylish design – capture intrinsic elements of Taiwan culture. The Wenzhou Street shop uses an art gallery style to promote creations by Taiwan craftsmen and designers, and hand-making DIY plus other related courses are occasionally offered.
Add: 1F, 4, Ln. 48, Wenzhou St., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2368-3120
Sense 30
This select shop, opened by three like-minded friends, targets consumers in their 30s with a refined collection of fine domestic and foreign brands, with everything from daily commodities to clothing to stationery.
Add: 10, Ln. 210, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2367-3398 (Closed on Tuesday.)
Plain Stationery & Homeware
After collecting stationery for more than 20 years, this shop’s founder decided to create a bricks-and-mortar space. Selected items are primarily practical, without flamboyant design, returning to stationery “essence.” Buyers take home items both practical and rich in design ingenuity.
Add: 10, Aly. 8, Ln. 210, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei City
Tel: 0975-875-120 (Closed on Tuesday and last Wednesday of each month.)
Nature Miffy
To promote healthy low-plastic-use living, the owner couple here sources appropriate natural-ingredient daily-use products from around Taiwan, along with their own handmade items, from brushes to sandals, brooms to baskets. Hand-making DIY classes are also offered to enable even deeper intimacy with the warmth and meaning of handmade articles.
Add: 3F, 3, Aly. 21, Ln. 283, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei City
Tel: 0926-808-249 (Open Wednesday~Friday 13:00~18:00; for other times, please contact the studio.)
Unique Cafés of Character
AGCT apartment
Run by a team of apparel designers, this is a space combining apparel design, sundry merchandise, and a café. The shop highlight is the full-front windows – sitting here for a leisurely brunch is the ultimate pleasure.
Add: 3F, 2-2, Ln. 49, Wenzhou St., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2369-6659 (Closed on Monday and Tuesday)
Light Café
The main theme here is light meals – salads, sandwiches, pizzas, waffles, etc. The great prices and flavors offered attract students in droves. The hearty signature “Streetlight 38 Hotdog Fort” has a 38cm long German-style sausage in a bun accompanied by a house-made meat sauce, cheese sauce, crisp pickles, and fresh onion.
Add: 19, Aly. 10, Ln. 244, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2367-7272
MinouMinou
The owner here has created a pet-friendly space for her own cat, replete with cat-theme decoration and with myriad cat-shaped paraphernalia for sale. The homemade meals emphasize taste without heaviness, focused on fresh fruits and vegetables. The food-holding containers used make this spot especially popular with cat-lovers.
Add: 2F, 138, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2365-6265 (Closed on Monday.)
Imperfect Café
This spacious place of minimalist design features a popular loft style, with concrete flooring and iron/wood furnishings. Local students are the main customers, so the theme is inexpensive light foods, coffees, other beverages, and sweet confections – great for students bringing a book or friends gathering.
Add: 2F, 96-5, Sec. 3, Xinsheng S. Rd., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2362-6663 (Closed irregularly.)
Transportation
Getting there: Take the MRT Songshan-Xindian Line (Line 3) to Taipower Building Station and leave the station by Exit 2 or take the line to Gongguan Station and leave the station by Exit 3 or 4; follow the signs to the lanes and alleys of Roosevelt Rd., Wenzhou St., and Tingzhou Rd.
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