We bought our Land Rover in August 2023. It was leading a sad existence in a small clearing on the edge of an old farm in the Eifel. With around 30 years under its belt, it was bursting with rust, was home to mice nests and the first mosses and lichens were already settling on it. But what an old Land Rover always has, regardless of its condition, is charm.

Our Land Rover is a 130 Special Vehicle Defender from 1996 with a chassis cab and an aluminum trunk. In Great Britain, these vehicles were mainly used in the ambulance service and by the military. In Germany, it is the only one of its kind and therefore also the first and only café Land Rover far and wide.

We bought the Land Rover from the previous owners, changed the battery, put air in the tires, filled up the tank and fired up the old four-cylinder diesel. In British service mentality, it drove the 450 km to Thuringia without any complaints.

We wanted to convert the classic British Land Rover into a unique mobile café. With hundreds of hours of work and great attention to detail, the old lady has become an unmistakable eye-catcher.

In the backyard, we then completely dismantled the old lady, separated the case from the frame, removed all the attachments, completely gutted the case and sanded down all the sheet metal parts. The frame was completely repainted and the body was also given a new coat of paint in the original Land Rover color “Grasmere Green”. After around 8 months of work, our Landy shone again in new splendor.

While the painter was busy, we designed the interior for the café in 3D. The Land Rover was designed so that it could stand completely self-sufficiently for two days without electricity or water supply and provide around 60 coffees an hour.

It took us another four months to put the plan into practice, converting the entire underbody into a huge energy and water storage unit, installing a huge amount of technology and kilometers of cables. Finally, a work surface, refrigerator and display shelves were installed and our design was applied by the vehicle wrapper.

On August 10, 2024, almost exactly one year after we brought our Land Rover home, our portafilter machine hissed for the first time and we made our first espresso.