Style & Skill Crush: Cafe Regular Du Nord
In the past, my style & skill crush spotlights have gone to other blogs. But I'm making a special exception in this case for a real live place, in the real life world.
Presenting Cafe Regular Du Nord. A tiny coffee shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn that will transport you to 1950's France the moment you spot the storefront. (And when I said little, I mean little. Its 400 sq feet.) I stumbled upon this place by complete accident and spent the entire 10 minutes I was there staring in amazement at this little gem. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me so I had to 'borrow' these photos from the web.
Let's start with the storefront. If you had shown me these two color swatches before I would have laughed at the thought and immediately thought of the New York Knicks. (Click here for the visual aid.) Well, I would have been dead wrong. The blue is just the perfect shade for a chic boutique. Its complemented by that vivid orange sign that sings to me 'come closer'.
Then I crossed the threshold. I'm not kidding when I say it took my breathe away. These photos simply do not do it justice. There are so many reasons why this place should not work. Its cramped, loaded with stuff, mixes more colors than you can count on two hands, liberally employees "faux" finishes, etc. But when you put it all together you get something really magical. A perfect example of how when someone knows what they are doing - you can just throw out the rules.
And then there are a few things that work so clearly that they can't be ignored. The fabulously high ceilings, the amazing chandelier that really "fills" the space against the distressed ceiling, the beveled mirror that doubles everything at a glance.
Time is my own again.
I waste it for the waste.
J.V. Cunningham, ‘Coffee’
This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.
Honore de Balzac, The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee
