The coffee shop is located in the city of Kalamata, on Germanou Street, one of the old town’s busiest streets. The company is known in the city for its excellent blends of Greek coffee and espresso, a certified production unit, with sales both in Greece and in Cyprus. Housing the store functions was more than challenging. A mere 45 m2 had to accommodate the coffee roasting and standardization laboratory, the goods display, as well as the take-away counter.

The space was organized as follows: the take away counter was designed in the style of an outdoor bench and placed in front of the shop, in an attempt to attract some of the passerby of the busy street and take the consumer by surprise. This design also made use of the outdoor space in front of the store, since it kept customers who were out for take-away beverages from entering the store and standing in the way of the store’s other functions.

Concerning the inside the shop, on the right hand side stands a wooden bench with six coffee grinders and the necessary scales. A single metal rack that accommodates related retail products, as well as two rows of white drawers with nuts for sale, are placed on the left hand side. Three large stainless steel containers with local traditional liqueurs complete the composition. The cash desk is located in the center of the store.

It is placed on an iron rack, a construction made of glass and metal, which functions as a transparent “filter” that separates the sales area with its inevitably public character and the more sheltered area of the laboratory. Finally, the big roasting machine lies in a prominent position of the laboratory, bringing forth the smell of coffee roasting that dominates the store. The store’s design outlines the consumers’ movements in an uninterrupted spiral path, from the left to the right, allowing the smooth operation of all the store’s uses (production – display – sale).

The initial goal was to create a place worthy of the business’s long-standing tradition in the coffee sector. In this context, the materials and morphological elements used were the appropriate to convey prestige, quality and the sense of timelessness. White and black wooden structures with panels and cavettos are combined harmoniously with metallic black stainless steel racks, which are designed in simple lines.

The structure’s raw concrete textures “converse” with the coarse white plaster coating the wall surfaces and the artificial granite coating of the benches. The roof is organized in a grid of plaster decorative elements, some simple and some more complex, conveying a certain sense of randomness. The composition is complemented by crystal-shaped ceiling lights and walnut-coloured wooden floors in a herringbone pattern, which strongly emphasize the store’s classic style and warm the space.

A selection of individual items also compliments the scene; industrial coffee grinders, retro coffee dispensers at the back of the cash desk, the hand-made espresso machine, made from a well-known Italian company famous for its ergonomics and unique designs. The carved inscription above the small stand coffee bar underlines the store’s prestige and quality for coffee lovers and connoisseurs alike. Finally, a stainless steel structure frames a mirror carrying the black-and-white photo of its founder in its center and makes up the store’s character.

A photograph that sums up the history of a business founded in the same place 93 years ago. Today, George Spinos, as the successor of a family tradition and a coffee culture lover, brings the store back to its roots, namely the same street where his father, Konstantinos, started the business, with the aim to preserve the identity, the prestige and the quality that that have marked the family business since 1925.

Design: AndreasPetropoulos/architecture.interior
Photography: Nikos Vavdinoudis and Christos Dimitriou