If you're spending your vacation at the Polish seaside, be sure to drop by Café Słodko in Gdańsk. Here, in addition to specialty coffee, breakfasts and wines, the interior is an equally important component of the menu. Intense shades of pink, red and neon, all under the watchful eye of Salvador Dalí looking down from the wall. Daria Bolewicka and Daria Skoczylas-Wozniak of bo/sko studio are responsible for this crazy yet sweet design.
Pink, red and lip motif accompanies the guests of Słodko
Photo: Jakub Nanowski © bo/sko
At just under 60 square meters, Słodko is located in Dolny Wrzeszcz at 2 Aldona St. The owner of the establishment is Agnieszka, a fan of good food, especially breakfasts, coffee, Salvador Dalí and, as you can guess, the color pink. The interior of the café is filled with it, and is highlighted by red accents, while white adds balance.
The cafe welcomes guests Słodko
Photo: Jakub Nanowski © bo/sko
The bar and the wall of the café, behind which the backroom is hidden, were finished by the architects with square white tiles, introducing a touch of co geometry. Attention is drawn to the terrazzo countertop and on it an Italian espresso machine and a display case with sweets.
"Red shrine" and eye and mouth motifs on the wall
Photo: Jakub Nanowski © bo/sko
The dining area features four tables in different colors surrounded by burgundy chairs. The designers also took advantage of the low windows, whose sills they turned into additional seating areas. For those on the run who only stop by for a quick coffee, a tall green table is designed. Red stained plywood steps placed on the left side of the premises also provide seating. The interior is decorated with elements of organic shapes and mouths and eyes—a reference to the work of Salvador Dalí. The artist himself looks at the café's guests, from a portrait hanging on one of the walls.
Additional seating includes low windowsills and a high table
photo: Jakub Nanowski © bo/sko
interview with Daria Bolewicka
Dobrawa Bies: Słodko is a very distinctive, playful interior—here we have pink, red, neon, terrazzo and organic shapes. Was it fun to design?
Daria Bolewicka: Definitely yes, it's not often that there are projects where the investor feels like taking a risk, deciding to use stronger colors. The owner of the café presented us with her inspirations and then trusted us, and as a result, this unusual space was created and the process of creating it was fun and creative.
The interior of the cafe is intentionally unrealistic
Photo: Jakub Nanowski © bo/sko
Dobrawa: How was the cooperation with the investor. Did she have a ready-made idea for the café?
Daria: We had a great cooperation with Agnieszka, this is not the first project we worked on together. The investor had a clearly defined dream: the interior was to be dominated by pink, the second assumption was the presence of Salvador Dalí—the investor's favorite artist. We tried to combine these two assumptions, supporting ourselves with geometry. We wanted to avoid superficiality in being inspired by Salvador's work, we reached back to our childhood memories and our mothers' perfume—the flacon designed by Dalí was our main inspiration.
One of the designers' favorite places is the "red chapel"
Photo: Jakub Nanowski © bo/sko
Dobrawa: How do you want the café's customers to feel? Did you want to evoke a particular mood with your design decisions?
Daria: In the interior of Café Słodko many forms and colors appear, but the whole is toned down with white. The interior is unreal, we deliberately do not fit into the context of the place, we wanted to move the customers of the café into a separate world, slightly crazy, but very sweet.
Dobrawa: Your favorite place in Słodko is?
Daria: The interior of the café is small, it's hard to talk about separate spaces. We really like the "red chapel" that appears in the central place of the premises.
Dobrawa: Thank you for the interview.
