Architecture that dazzles
Coffeehouse owners across the country know great design adds atmosphere and keeps customers coming back.
It takes more than good lighting and a few paintings to create a great atmosphere. Coffeehouse owners across the country know architecture is vital to their stores' feel and are taking advantage of that. Specialty Coffee Retailer talked to five of these professionals to find out how they used architecture to create their shops' unique feel.
BY PETER SUROWSKI NORTHEAST Her shop, One Shot Coff ee in
Philadelphia, looks like the beautiful collision of an artist's living room, a Parisian bistro and a mountain man's abandoned cabin. It was once a private three-story
One Shot Coffee Philadelphia, Pa.
Architecture is key to giving a coff eehouse personality, and few know this better than Melissa Baruno.
home in the city's Northern Liberties neighborhood, but it was converted for commercial use. Th e fi rst fl oor is a narrow, hallway-like seating room with tiny round coff ee tables bought from antique shops, which are surrounded in French café-style chairs and plush custom-made booths. Th e ceiling is covered in metal
panels found in a local junkyard and intentionally water-stained to look more rustic. Th e entrance to the kitchen— which was open to the dining area when
December 2011 • www.specialty-coffee.com | 29