Iran shuts down Tehran coffee shop chain over ‘suspicious’ cup designs
Cafe says cups featuring a painting of an empty chair are unconnected to any current events, were designed months ago for Nowruz
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PARIS, France — Iranian authorities have ordered the closure of a popular chain of Tehran cafes over designs on its takeaway cups deemed to be referring to the killing of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, media reports said Saturday.
The reports by Iranian news agencies did not give further details. But Persian-language media based outside Iran said the controversial design for customers at the Lamiz chain of cafes showed an empty chair which was seen by authorities as a comment on Khamenei’s killing and the failure of his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei to appear in public since being named.
Branches of Lamiz in Tehran have been shuttered and sealed on the orders of the judiciary, the Tasnim and Mehr news agencies reported.
The cafe had “designed suspicious designs against the martyred imam on its products in recent days,” they said, referring to Khamenei, who had ruled Iran since 1989.
The cafe said in a statement on its social media channels, which have since also been closed, that it had, over the last year, designed special cups for the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, which was celebrated this month.
It denied any political meaning saying: “The cups have no connection whatsoever to recent events — their production, from final design approval to printing, was completed over several months, and their full delivery to warehouses had already taken place before these events began.”
Images posted by media based outside Iran showed the cups adorned with a colourful empty chair surrounded by a shower of colourful droplets.
Iranian authorities on Saturday shut down all branches of the popular café chain Lamiz after it used cups featuring a 1975 painting by renowned Iranian artist Farshid Mesghali, a design hardliners interpreted as mocking the empty chair of slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.… pic.twitter.com/HyafptAa4s
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) March 28, 2026
The cafe has over 20 branches in Tehran as well as others outside the capital. Only the Tehran branches are believed to be affected by the move.
Tehran and other big Iranian cities have seen a surge in cafe culture in recent years, with specialist coffee shops sprouting up as meeting places and also artistic hubs.
They have sometimes fallen foul of authorities for allegedly failing to impose the Islamic Republic’s dress rules for women, but also during moments of upheaval such as the January 2026 protests against the clerical system.
The Times of Israel Community.