We recommend to turn on this music while watching the interior design project for “Molodist”.
Molodist is a 470-sq.m café-bar opened in Kyiv by the owner of the Cooper’s People company, the founder of the first city food market and Molodost cafe in Odesa Alex Cooper and Kyiv restaurateur, the founder of the La Familia chain restaurants Mikhail Beylin. The main concept is based on the atmosphere of the 90s that reminds you of the childhood before electronic gadgets, offers familiar home-cooked meals and keeps its doors open 24/7.
The café itself is an extension of the 18th-century building that was once a military arsenal. Part of this building now houses a newly opened Kyiv Food Market, also co-founded by Cooper and Beylin.
You feel the energy of the youth the moment you step through the entryway of glass and steel. The place is packed with eclectic mementos of the 90s, mixed and matched in playful, if not surreal combinations.
Real street lamps stand next to the entrance door. They emphasize the height of the ceiling together with a massive mirror and a crystal chandelier. In a sharp contrast to the chandelier the walls of the entrance hall are stylized as an average Soviet-era apartment building.
The walls are partially painted in blue, resembling those low-cost, 5-storey apartment blocks built in Kyiv in early 60s. Instead of graffiti though there are images of heroes from popular cartoons, projected on the wall.
There are two functional zones in the café: the ground floor with a soft-seating area and kitchens, and the top floor featuring main seating zone and a bar.
Furniture brought in from the Soviet-era apartments has softened up a cold industrial space. Approximately 90% of the furniture here is second-hand. Every piece here has a history; for instance, several table tops are made of recycled furniture from Yugoslavia, a few chairs are re-invented seats from de-commissioned buses.
Chairs in the main seating zone came from Lada cars, re-constructed and re-upholstered in leather.
THE BAR
The centrepiece of the café’s interior is a composition made of two vertically assembled sea freight containers. Both of them have seating spaces; in addition, the lower container has a bar, and the top one hosts DJ’s controller.
PLAY ZONE
There is a play zone with Dendy, Sega and other game consoles. Behind the play zone there are several additional tables, with gymnastics pommel horses as chairs. Kyiv café atmosphere promotes guests’ interaction thus the role of the central communal table was given to a large billiards table, which was covered with glass panel to create a suitable table top.
The cubic annex on the mezzanine, lined with Soviet facade tiles, plays the role of the restrooms. The elongated shape of one of them allowed placing a red velvet sofa inside. Photo wallpapers cover the walls of the facility while the stretched ceiling is suspended over. Old clinker tiles form the other two bathrooms. The washbasins here mimic two baby baths sourced from OLX.
TEAM
