Restaurants that sell their interior? You may ask yourself, does that make sense? Is it just smart marketing? However when you connect the dots with sustainability as a red thread it becomes a strong concepts that advocates a sustainable lifestyle.
The latest restaurant to appear is
Te Koop in Utrecht, a green concept with a high feel-good factor. The name says it;
the interior is for sale; all the interior decoration is made by
Decodel who are specialized in up-cycling vintage interior objects whilst adding a quirky Dutch kitsch touch to them in the doing. The restaurant is full of little still-life's and small collections of particular items. The food is biologic and as much as possible locally sourced. Their slogan says it all; "we really believe the world could be a better place if we think green, so let's recycle.
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| Eetcafe Te Koop, Utrecht |
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| Eetcafe Te Koop, Utrecht |
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| Eetcafe Te Koop, Utrecht |
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| Eetcafe Te Koop, Utrecht |
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| Eetcafe Te Koop, Utrecht |
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| Eetcafe Te Koop, Utrecht |
The Smalle Haven in Eindhoven has a similar concept; the food is locally sourced and fresh from the market, there is no fixed menu, the ingredients are composed into a dish on the spot in coordination with the chef. The interior objects are all for sale. The style is more second-hand collectors items with designer signature, with emphasis on Dutch Design (Gispen etc). Adjacent to the restaurant is Dutch Design Year which sells interior items by new Dutch Designers.
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| De Smalle Haven, Eindhoven |
Latei in Amsterdam probably was the pioneer, they connect good food with
locally sourced ingredients to an over-full Amsterdam living room annex
Waterloo plein second-hand like interior where everything is for
sale.
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| Latei, Amsterdam |
It's interesting to see this new category appear, another retail conversion point where peoples numerous interests are brought together and addressed in one place. This time one where food meets interior, whilst we seen have many others, i.e read my post on the
Village Coffee, where coffee is mixed with indie music and local art in a industrial vintage setting.
Is it just the crisis and smart cross-selling? or is it perhaps an analogue response to the internet, 3rd places are becoming interest based hang-outs, where you can meet like-minded people. And naturally retailers are looking for the cross-points of interest to build an interest-based multiple touch-point experience.
