The cafe of...Xoli Ormut-Durbin

Café Xoho, Tel Aviv, Israel 

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A VIBRANT AND NOMADIC PAST has fed into every corner of this exciting space in Tel Aviv. Dreamt up by the ever-energetic Xoli, born in Hong-Kong and studied in Australia, Xoho, an arty café in the heart of the city is the result of Xoli’s experiment, bringing an artistic coffee culture to the Israeli city.

Xoli studied graphic design in Melbourne, deciding to move there after getting to know it during a two month visit, escaping the Hong-Kong SARS outbreak in 2004. On graduating Xoli followed her family to Tel Aviv. With some life-long friendships forged after a brief stint getting up to mischief at a Kibbutz years before, (a place where she was supposed to be learning Hebrew), Xoli alongside one of her Kibbutz companions Howie, decided to set up Café Xoho.

“Our aim was to breathe some creative life into an already saturated market of generic coffee shops in Tel Aviv. We are a home away from home. A living room bursting with wonderful aromas and the laughter of happy people.”

With artistic influences from her mother and a business minded father, it seems only natural that Xoli’s path lead her to established a buzzing hub of creative hospitality. One year after opening, Howie decided to back out of the venture returning back to law and sparing their friendship.

If one thing has become clear for Xoli, it’s that opening a café can be tough, and opening a café in Tel Aviv when you’ve only lived there a year, well that happens to be on another level completely

All Images and content from the wonderful Slanted Mansion

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