Saved by alexi gunner
Caffs Not Cafes Finds the Magic in London’s Old School Joints
Gingham curtains line the windows, oxblood linoleum covers the floors, the rest is all laminate tables and beautifully brown fixed seating
Isaac Rangaswami • The Caff Is One of Britain’s Cultural Treasures – But if We Don’t Eat in Them, They’ll Disappear
but one of the beautiful things about the old "kissaten," the cafes of pre-specialty-coffee Japan, is that they're often heavily customized by the owners, with Viennese lamps, or teddy bears, or Oscar Wilde-esque velvet everywhere. Blue Bottle's Nestle turn (the aesthetic aspects involving James Freeman's fondness for Apple Stores and Shake Shack)
... See moreBlackbird Spyplane • Too many places are STERILE and TORCHED — let’s make them COOL and FUNKY
Diners, as a rule, are time machines; whether through the formica sheen of the nineteen-forties, the chromium optimism of the fifties, or the pastel geometries of the eighties, a diner traffics in nostalgia for past decades and past selves. The only era a diner should never reference is now.
Helen Rosner • The Best Diners Are Still Just Diners | The New Yorker
Shout out to Bemelmans, an inarguable treasure. And shout out to the immensely & similarly charming Tosca , in San Francisco, where Erin & I had dinner the other night and which never disappoints.
BUT these places are not U.G.H.Z. because they are highly grammable and therefore susceptible to invasion by annoying hordes, screaming out to be
... See moreJonah & Erin • Too Many Places Are STERILE and TORCHED — Let’s Make Them COOL and FUNKY
In an in-depth investigation for The Guardian, Chayka documents how the AirSpace style of interior decor has become the dominant design style of coffee shops:
“Go to Shoreditch Grind, near a roundabout in the middle of London’s hipster district. It’s a coffee shop with rough-hewn wooden tables, plentiful sunlight from wide windows, and austere... See more
“Go to Shoreditch Grind, near a roundabout in the middle of London’s hipster district. It’s a coffee shop with rough-hewn wooden tables, plentiful sunlight from wide windows, and austere... See more