CATERING TO THE SLOW LIFESTYLE, FULL FAT STUDIO COMPLETES THE INTERIOR OF THE SLOW COFFEE CAFÉ THAT SLOWS DOWN A FRAGMENT OF TIME IN THE WORLD INTO A DELIGHTFUL MOMENT
TEXT: PRATARN TEERATADA
PHOTO: RILEY SNELLING
(For Thai, press here)
Someone once said that “one of the happiest moments in life is being able to do and enjoy something at a slower pace without feeling like it’s a waste of time.” The term slow-life has been interpreted into a number of lifestyles, and one of them is the experience of enjoying a cup of coffee meticulously prepared and served at a slow coffee bar.
There are roughly three types of cafes and coffee houses in the world, speed bar, slow bar and the hybrid that puts both a speed and slow bar together in one place. Slow bars, most of the time, refer to a coffee bar where other tools are used in addition to an espresso machine to create menus such as pour over coffee or drip coffee, nitro-brew, aero-press, french-press or syphon. These methods of coffee making can be categorized as hand brewing, slow coffee or craft coffee since the processes are akin to that of a handicraft creation where every step is more refined and time-consuming, and making of one cup of coffee can take between 10 to 20 minutes.
While Slow bar cafes are still considered niche, the culture is growing in response to the increasing appreciation in the slow lifestyle with enough potential clients to sustain this specific type of establishment. Milky’s Cloud Room is a slow coffee cafe in Toronto, born from the initial concept that intended to materialize a space that specifically caters to the slow lifestyle. Travertine stone has been chosen to take the center stage as the interior’s principal material for its aesthetic merits that convey age and solemness. Cloud is another element used as an integral part of the concept for the speed and unpredictability it represents. The project’s designer, Full Fat Studio, interprets Cloud Room into a slowly moving light phenomenon, reflecting the shadow cast on the three-dimensional travertine finish of the walls and the ceiling, mimicking the shadow of moving clouds that gradually reconcile their shapes in a lingering manner. The graphic pattern on the walls of the Cloud Room feel familiar but refreshing at the same time. The new experience is brought about by a fusion of materials, colors, patterns and details, individually and collectively expressing the design’s meticulousness and attentiveness to detail. The interior design is entirely customized and prefabricated at the factory and later installed on site. The mood and tone is the result of carefully curated ambience light and the cloud effect with fiber-optic lights installed at the counter, perfectly complementing the ‘slowness’ concept.
The cafe presents every detail of its design and operation from presentation to hospitality, interior spaces to beverages on the menu, all carefully designed to stop or slow down time. At Cloud Room, the brew bar offers a wide range of coffee options, from pour-over siphon to other methods of specialty coffee and tea.
The special experience Milky’s Cloud Room intends to bring to its customers is offering someone a chance to start their morning in a good mood by slowing down a fragment of time in the world into a memorable, delightful moment; encapsulating a pleasant feeling that is going to remain with them for the rest of the day.