Assagao, known for its tranquil elegance, has just received a major upgrade in luxury hospitality. Unseen Assagao is more than a hotel; it’s a sophisticated sanctuary designed to connect guests with the world’s finest coffee. Built from the soil up, this boutique stay promises a deep dive into culture and flavour, inviting patrons to slow down and truly savour Goa’s quiet heart.
Unseen Assagao, a groundbreaking new venture in the tranquil, upscale village of Assagao, is setting a new standard for luxury hospitality in Goa. The concept was born from a desire to position the world of coffee by establishing a holistic, coffee-forward hotel that integrates a roastery, a dedicated coffee bar, and a sophisticated coffee cocktail bar into one space, says owner of Coffee Culture, Gaurav Narang. This ultimate physical expression of the brand’s two-decade-long journey aims to elevate coffee from a mere drink to an immersive cultural experience, deeply rooted in the Goan soil.
The ambition behind the brand began in 2004, a pivotal time when India’s café scene was just finding its feet. Gaurav recalls the driving force behind establishing an Indian brand, “I wanted to build something of our own wherein there were international brands coming to India, McDonald’s and Domino’s and there were no Indian brands. And that was the idea that, okay, we want to get into something which can go national and why not an Indian brand which can get into coffee.” Over the subsequent years, that vision flourished into Coffee Culture, a brand that now spans “20 years into our coffee culture journey” across “34 outlets” in cities including Surat, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Jaipur.
This depth of experience has allowed them to move beyond simple formats. The brand constantly sought to reinvent how coffee could be enjoyed, leading to increasingly specialised offerings. Gaurav notes that their dedication to the complex narrative of coffee eventually led to sourcing exceptional beans. He recounts their previous format: “The last format which we did was like we wanted to actually sell international coffee. So we did Coffee Culture Origins, which is around coffee served as omakase,” featuring rare beans and “micro lots from various regions which are really exceptional, like Panama, Ethiopia, El Salvador.”
This experience with competition-lot coffees, sold through storytelling, paved the way for the hotel’s ultimate ambition. Gaurav emphasises, “We really want to make sure that coffee shouldn’t have any boundaries. You know, it should not be judged by whether it is Indian or international, the best of the coffee can be from any region across the world.”
At Unseen Assagao, the philosophy is that coffee should be a feature of every hour of a guest’s stay. The model is designed to integrate the ritual of coffee into the luxury hospitality experience. The service starts immediately upon waking, with personalised room service: “You wake up and you will get a French press at a hotel in the room.” Throughout the day, the in-house roastery and barista bar offer a wide range of choices: “You will get various different roasts of coffee, different notes of coffee, different origins of coffee.”
By evening, the venue transforms. “The baristas are there, the roastery is there. And then, you know, when you go later in the evening, you’ve got the coffee cocktail bar. So that was the idea. A whole day coffee experience in one place.” This full-spectrum offering, from rare single-origin beans in the morning to sophisticated coffee-based cocktails at night, sets Unseen apart from the standard boutique hotel model.
The launch event highlighted their most innovative offering, the Coffee Omakase session. Gaurav proudly states, “We were the first ones to actually get coffee Omakase in the country.” This experience, led by curator AJ, is an intimate, four-course journey through exceptional coffees, where each cup is “paired with the right sort of food pairing.” Guests are guided through “the story of the origin of the farm to the cup,” meticulously dissecting why a coffee is “tasting so bright or fruity or floral.”
The ultimate goal of this experiential tasting is to deepen the customer’s appreciation. Gaurav notes the trajectory of the modern coffee drinker: “We all started with Nescafe, we all started with Frappes and now people have gone to Americanos, then pour-overs, they’re now talking about not just the roast, they’re talking about the notes.” The brand aims “to take them to the highest level of how coffee can be experienced.”
The decision to establish this flagship property in Assagao was deeply deliberate and strategic. Gaurav explains the village’s unique appeal: “Assagao was the only place in Goa which primarily has a moment to slow down and you know, sip in… this is known for pausing and slowing down,” making it the ideal setting for a contemplative, culture-focused experience.
This deep respect for the locale is most evident in the hotel’s aesthetic. The very name ‘Unseen’ stems from a core, community-focused philosophy. “We saw that people of Assagao really don’t like things which are coming from outside and have that showy mansion, South Delhi vibe… your standing out is not something people appreciate. Fitting in is something which people appreciate,” he said.
The ‘Unseen’ team cemented this commitment through a remarkable act of local integration, choosing to use the land itself to colour the structure, “We took the soil of Assagao and painted it one single day. Terracotta, the colour.” This powerful detail, complemented by traditional Jali work, makes the hotel feel intrinsically rooted and integrated into the landscape.
Unseen Assagao is a sophisticated cultural movement championing mindful luxury and specialty coffee while respecting the local context. It proves that commitment to local culture creates a globally exceptional product. As Gaurav succinctly puts it, it’s a place where “you have to come for coffee and you will stay for culture.”
