This project is our interpretation of the classic French café, passed through our aesthetics. We collected familiar, recognizable design elements and combined them with our signature style. It all comes down to contrast — the basis of our work:

Make smooth everything that can be touched, and make rough everything that cannot be touched.

The establishment is located in an early twentieth century building, where there was once a Jewish store. The space became the perfect architectural and emotional backdrop for this concept.

Planning concept

L'OR cafe has two levels, different in style and function:

The first floor is a light bistro area. Here it is easy to imagine the artist sitting quietly with a cigarette and a cup of coffee, like in Parisian cafes of the early twentieth century. Instead of one large bar, we created three small ones. The tables are small and round, like in a classic bistro.

The second floor is more like a restaurant designed for leisurely dinners, good wine and chamber conversations. Heavy curtains and soft textures create a feeling of comfort and drama. Linoleum countertops and preserved fragments of frescoes from the original building form a tactile atmosphere.

Design Details

The original “chessboard” tile found on a nearby staircase inspired us to rethink the classic black and white bistro pattern. We recreated it from alternative materials to give it a more modern and sophisticated look.

Brass accents in metal and signage.

The use of non-standard materials in refined forms (such as linoleum on countertops or rough textures next to velvet upholstery) reflects our desire to erase the boundaries between old and new, high and low, smooth and rough.