Iconic Cafe by Studio Vural

I love coffee; I can actually call myself a coffeeholic. I also love small beautifully designed coffee shops with character and a story to tell. Remember The Little Mule Cafe + Bike Store I posted last year? Yeap, this small gem in Melbourne is still in my heart. Anyway, today we have a beautiful small espresso bar in Soho, NY, by Studio Vural. Inspired by a picture of Indian gods Krishna and Radha the design team found at the demolition site, the Iconic Cafe is a contemporary reflection of their timeless love story. 'The design is a well calibrated blend of modern geometry, exposed century-old wood joists, wax finished white oak panelling and amazing Mexican tiles, that will take you to a multi-cultural consciousness in your digitized coffee break.', the Studio Vural comments. I found really clever the plan/section/detail perspective drawing that explains much about the main design idea and decoration elements.

If you're also fan of cool coffee bars check my favourite ones in Athens at the Hommie visits: section. Qahwa, Mind the Cup and Tailor Made. Mind the Cup was featured in a BuzzFeed's post as one of the 25 Coffee Shops Around The World You Have To See Before You Die.

//spotted on Archinect // images via Studio Vural

Smallest café in North America

I haven't yet overcome my obsession with small places. This time, I'm not showing you another small apartment but the smallest take-away coffee bar in North America. La Distributrice (The Dispenser) occupies the smallest commercial space in Montréal (underneath a staircase), serving espresso, americano and latté from its delightful little window directly on the street. Gabriel Lefebvre and Rachel Lecompte designed the minimal black-and-white brand identity and packaging. The custom typography, the monochrome graphics and that paper cup-carrier are just one-of-a-kind.

// via behance //

The Little Mule Cafe + Bike Store

Coffee and bikes: two of the biggest worldwide obsessions. The Little Mule Company mates managed to combine both and end up with a great cafe + bike store in Melbourne, Australia. They build colourful custom single speed and fixed gear bikes in their small workshop while they serve "amazing coffee and ridiculously tasty food", as they mention on their website.

When the Little Mule Company is closed it looks like a very stylish total-black-façade garage. But when the roller door opens it reveals a cosy warehouse/industrial style cafe decorated with several hanging bikes and bikes' accessories. The cafe may be small but it can seat just over 30 people and their teeny tiny kitchen pumps out all freshly made seasonal food. There’s a high wooden communal table where people seem to like holding casual office meetings, a couple of smaller tables and a black leather Chesterfield couch abutting one white exposed brick wall. They also use recycled jam jars for their water glasses and sugar receptacles, which is a great idea.

| images via The Little Mule Company Pty Ltd | 2nd-4th-6th-8th image via Dianna Snape |

A pop-up café in London

It's a new trend and it's everywhere! I'm talking about different kinds of temporary stores and cafés that pop up out of the blue in the most bizarre sites. One of them is the Movement Pop-Up Cafe in Greenwich district, in south-eastern London. Colourful, fresh and full of life, MVMNT Cafe and performance space was constructed in just 16 days during the summer, ready to serve passers by and Olympics' visitors.

Hommie visits: Mind the Cup, Athens, Greece

My nightly wanderings led me to the west suburbs of Athens and somewhere in the centre of Peristeri I discovered Mind the Cup. The first thing I noticed was the façade's square industrial windows and the weathered patina metal chairs that surrounded a large round flower bed. When I caught a peek inside, I was sure that this café-bar had a very interesting story to tell.

photo © Chadoulis Pantelis

Market Lane Coffee Shop

We love to make coffee for the city that loves to drink it! With this motto, written in large white letters on the window, this small coffee shop, called  Market Lane Coffee, welcomes its customers in Melbourne, Australia. Generally, I have a particular dote on cafés, especially on the small ones, that seem to be made with great care and taste by the owners.

Hommie visits: Tailor Made in Athens, Greece

Arriving in Greece, for my christmas break, and having made my 'New-places-to-visit'-list, I started to explore them in my favourite area of Athens, the city's Centre. I had already heard that there was something happening in Ag. Eirini's square and that more and more coffee and drinking 'temples' appeared there. One of them is Tailor Made - 'micro Roastery & coctail Bar'! This new meeting point opened just the previous summer and has already stolen, if not the hearts of the coffee lovers and cocktail specialists, at least mine, both decoratively and savourily!

Hommie visits: Mon Frére Café, Thessaloniki, Greece

This Christmas I decided to leave Athens for a couple of days. And I had only one place in my mind, the lovely Thessaloniki. I have some favourite spots there and I couldn't wait to visit them! So, with great pleasure I introduce you one of my favourite cafés, the Mon Frére Café!

Starbucks Container Store, Washington

The use of shipping containers in architecture is becoming a new trend all around the world. The reason is pretty obvious: more than 20 million are useless scattered around the planet, they are recyclable, transformable, adjustable, they are a cheap construction material and totally sustainable! Puma City, the contemporary Muvbox pop-up restaurant, Keetwonen student accommodation in Amsterdam, 2+Weekend House in Slovenia and Freitag store in Zurich are just a few examples of such structures. Starbucks brand is here to impress us with the new drive-through Container Store in Tukwila, Washington!

Hommie visits: De Bakkerswinkel in Amsterdam

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Hommie grows up and expands! It has already celebrated its first year and I am really proud of it! From now on we will have a new 'column' called  Hommie visits and it will have posts of houses, shops, restaurants and other creatively interesting spaces to photograph and show them to you. So, the first Hommie visits travels you to the amazing Amsterdam, to the take-away cafe De Bakkerswinkel!