The Cafe by Origen (Shop Management)
Quick answer: Reach Tycoon Level 4, buy the starter shop on Bluebeard Road for 5,000 Fons, and put two employees in it. Unlock every recipe you can, fill the shelf with the highest-priced dishes, and restock for 24 hours. Collect your earnings every time you log in, and buy each new shop as soon as it unlocks.
The Cafe by Origen is the one Fons source that keeps earning while you're offline. You choose the menu, hire your characters as employees, restock the ingredients, and collect the money when you come back. A basic setup is easy, but a tuned one earns much more, so this guide covers both.
How the Cafe Makes Money
Each dish earns roughly its price × traffic, and then your shop's popularity multiplies the result. That gives you three levers:
- Price: pick dishes with a high base price, and use employees who add to prices.
- Traffic: use employees who bring in more customers. Because price and traffic multiply each other, using only one kind leaves money on the table.
- Popularity: buy furniture, but only up to each shop's cap. Anything past the cap earns nothing.
Your Management Level rises on its own from the revenue you collect, and it unlocks new recipes and features. Leaving earnings uncollected slows it down.
Unlocking the Cafe
- Reach Tycoon Level 4. The requirements are 200,200 Fons earned and 10 City Stamina spent, and your tasks also include owning a four-wheeled vehicle.
- Buy the first shop, Bluebeard Road, for 5,000 Fons.
- Place two employees in it.
See Tycoon Level Guide for the full level requirements.
The Five Shops
You can own up to five shops at once. Each one adds more menu slots and more traffic, so buy every shop the moment it unlocks. The income pays the cost back.
| Shop | Unlocks at Management Level | Cost (Fons) | Popularity cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluebeard Road | 1 | 5,000 | 150 |
| Fiscus Avenue | 5 | 20,000 | 500 |
| Davidia Avenue | 10 | 40,000 | 500 |
| Moomin Street | 17 | 75,000 | 750 |
| Hankaku Street | 25 | 100,000 | 750 |
Bluebeard Road is the weakest, with 2,400 base traffic and the lowest popularity scaling. The last two shops have the highest multipliers. Buying Fiscus Avenue also opens the Owner's Selection mini-game, covered in City Stamina and Hobbies.
Your Daily Cafe Routine
- Open the City Tycoon menu, pick The Cafe by Origen, and enter the shop.
- Collect the earnings. This also raises your Management Level.
- Open Management and unlock every new recipe your level allows.
- Put the highest-priced dishes on the shelf.
- Press Restock, choose 24 hours, and confirm.
- Clear the Management Guide tasks at the top of the shop screen for one-time Fons rewards.
- Repeat for each shop you own.
Logging in twice a day to collect, swap in fresh recipes, and restock beats a perfectly tuned setup you only check once in a while.
Restocking
- If a shop runs out of ingredients, its earnings stop completely. Restock before you run dry.
- Your warehouse holds up to 72 hours of ingredients.
- Choose 24 hours early on. New recipes unlock quickly at low levels, and a 72-hour restock locks you out of swapping in the better dishes the next day. Use 72 hours only for long breaks.
- From Management Level 40, restocking becomes automatic. You can switch it off from the Restock screen if you'd rather manage it yourself.
- You can also order ingredients through delivery. The fee shrinks as your Management Level rises (see the unlock table below).
The Menu: Dishes, Tags, and Recipes
Each shop shelf holds six dishes. There are 18 dishes in total, split into seven Beverages, six Main Dishes, and five Desserts, and each dish has three levels that raise its base price. The most expensive dish in the game is the Caramel & Cocoa Mille-Feuille, reaching 18 Fons at its second level.
Unlocked recipes stay permanent across all your shops. The first recipes unlock at these Management Levels:
| Management Level | Recipe |
|---|---|
| Starting shop | Coconut Latte |
| 2 | Iced Mocha |
| 3 | Apple Pie |
| 4 | Tomato & Fried Eggs |
| 6 | Tuna Sandwich |
| 7 | Amber Glamor |
| 8 | Matcha Lava |
| 9 | Snowy Latte |
| 12 | Red Bean & Butter Croissant |
| 13 | Strawberry Box Cake |
| 14 | Orange Hot Coffee |
| 15 | Pork Cutlet |
| 16 | Coconut Macchiato |
| 19 | Tiramisu |
| 20 | Ham & Cheese Croissant |
Each dish also has a tag, either Beverage, Main Dish, or Dessert. Some employee skills only work when the shelf has enough matching tags, so a cheaper shelf that matches your employees can beat an expensive one that doesn't. Recheck your shelf after every Management Level you gain.
Daily Trends unlock at Management Level 20. Each day one trend is active. An ingredient trend (Flour, Fruit, or Coffee Beans) adds a flat 0.75 Fons to every dish using it, and a category trend (Beverages, Main Dishes, or Desserts) adds 1.0 Fons to that whole section. Coffee Beans is the widest ingredient trend, touching eight dishes, including all seven Beverages.
Employees and Life Skills
Every shop takes two employees. Each character has a Life Skill with five levels. Levels 2 to 4 each cut ingredient use by 1% (3% in total), and Level 5 upgrades the headline effect.
| Employee | Type | Level 1 | Level 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skia | Traffic | +18 traffic | +27 traffic |
| Daffodil | Traffic | +18 traffic | +27 traffic |
| Baicang | Traffic | +18 traffic | +27 traffic |
| Chiz | Traffic | +18 traffic | +27 traffic |
| Edgar | Traffic | +18 traffic | +27 traffic |
| Haniel | Price | +0.12 Fons to every dish | +0.18 Fons |
| Adler | Price | +0.12 Fons to every dish | +0.18 Fons |
| Mint | Price | +0.12 Fons to every dish | +0.18 Fons |
| Sakiri | Price (tag-based) | +0.12 Fons to every dish | +0.3 Fons on dishes with 3 identical tags |
| Nanally | Price (tag-based) | +0.2 Fons per Main Dish tag | +0.3 per 2 Main Dish tags |
| Lacrimosa | Price (tag-based) | +1% price per Dessert tag | +1.5% per 2 Dessert tags |
| Aurelia | Traffic (tag-based) | +1% traffic per Beverage tag | +1.5% per 2 Beverage tags |
How to use them:
- Put one price employee and one traffic employee in each shop.
- Upgrade traffic employees to Level 5 first. Going from +18 to +27 is a 50% boost to that skill, and it multiplies against every price bonus.
- Then upgrade the flat price employees, and the tag-based ones last, unless your shelf is built around their tag.
- Haniel's, Adler's, and Mint's price bonuses work on every dish, which makes them the safest choices when you keep changing your menu.
- Level up one skill in every shop before pushing one employee to Level 5.
- You don't need limited characters. Skia, Daffodil, Baicang, Chiz, Haniel, Adler, and Mint are available to everyone.
Furniture and Popularity
Popularity comes from Tables and Chairs, Walls, and Decor, and it raises your hourly revenue up to the shop's cap. Tables and chairs give the most popularity per Fons, so buy those first and fill the rest with wall decor. Four-seat furniture is the best value. You buy it from Dorn at the DeLuxur Decor shop.
| Shop | Minimum furniture to reach the cap | Cost (Fons) |
|---|---|---|
| Bluebeard Road | 1 Cream Double Seat, 1 Boss's Approval | 8,500 |
| Fiscus Avenue / Davidia Avenue (each) | 2 Rustic Four-Seats, 1 Cream Double Seat, 2 Boss's Approval | 17,500 |
| Moomin Street / Hankaku Street (each) | 3 Rustic Four-Seats, 2 Rustic Double Seats, 6 Boss's Approval | 35,500 |
You can swap Boss's Approval for any other wall decor with the same popularity value.
Management Level Unlocks
| Level | What you get |
|---|---|
| 2 | Delivery, with an 80% fee |
| 15 | Delivery fee drops to 60% |
| 20 | Delivery fee 40% and Daily Trends |
| 22 | Direct upgrades for the dishes on your shelf |
| 25 | Delivery fee drops to 20% |
| 30 | Free delivery |
| 40 | Auto restock |
Common Mistakes
- Letting a shop run out of stock. Earnings stop completely until you restock.
- Putting only one kind of employee in a shop. Pair a price employee with a traffic one.
- Filling the shelf without checking tags. Tag-based skills do nothing without enough matching dishes.
- Buying furniture past the popularity cap. Anything above it is wasted.
- Restocking for 72 hours early on. You'll miss the new recipes that unlock each day.
- Not collecting earnings. Collecting also raises your Management Level.
If your hourly figure won't go up after a change, check these four things: ingredients ran out, a tag-based skill isn't active, the shop is already at its popularity cap, or the employee's skill level isn't unlocked yet. Reopen Shop Management and compare total traffic and revenue before and after a swap.
FAQ
When can I open The Cafe by Origen? At Tycoon Level 4.
How many shops can I own? Up to five.
Does the Cafe earn while I'm offline? Yes, as long as the shop has ingredients. A restock covers up to 72 hours.
Which restock option should I pick? 24 hours while you're still unlocking recipes, and 72 hours only when you'll be away for a long time. Management Level 40 makes restocking automatic.
Do I need rare characters as employees? No. Free and permanent characters like Skia, Daffodil, Baicang, Chiz, Haniel, Adler, and Mint cover most of the benefit.
This guide is compiled from player guides, mostly written for Version 1.3, and some details may change. We update it as each one is confirmed in-game.