I’ve been to the Wolfsonian before, but this time the intimacy and cleverness of the shop/cafe really struck me. First of all, how many retail spaces show Louise Brooks movies on a large screen?
This building was originally a storage facility. Sounds like the scale would be large, doesn’t it? But it’s not, and that’s a major part of the charm.
The cafe and shop are in the same area, and a low catwalk surrounds the tables. The ironwork and terazzo floor are original, I assume, and the Wolfsonian’s additions complement the architecture in an edgy way. Check out the tabletops: similar to the floor, but with large-scale graphics embedded.
And not to harp on it, but come on, showing silent movies from the 20s and 30s? (The collections are Deco, did I mention?) Smart and cool.
