Where Coffee Meets Sophistication, Confectionary Meets Artistry
We all have multiple lives. We juggle between being a parent, a partner, a professional, a sibling, or maybe just being an occasional creative person. While it is true also in my case, I can add a couple of things more to this list - that of being a traveller and a student. When I travel, I focus on people, places, history, landscape, food, drinks, dress, tradition etc. and I often look for a place where I can get most of these together. It may sound a bit strange, but I have always had a belief that a good coffee shop is a place where you can expect many of these to be present at a time.
People who love to relax and meet others come to drink a cup of coffee. If the shop is decorated enough, one will find a glimpse of the town and its landscape through some paintings on its walls. Some shops have local tradition mixed in the menu - a cake or baked sweet item which was founded years ago at the same place where the shop is now housed.
Staffanstorp is a small town in between Malmö and Lund in southern Sweden. In the middle of the town, one can find a simple and lovely coffee shop called "Fernandas Konditori & Bageri". Few days back, I had spent some time there. I walked through the doors and was greeted with a smiling and charming person. Now, this is where things started - a good welcome, an affectionate approach to new guest, and an opening conversation acted as a mood-booster.
I had ordered a cappuccino and a cookie, which looked very delightful. I took a seat and I was served the drink and the snack on table. The furniture was elegant to the eyes. I have always believed that furniture always plays a role in depicting the mood of the owner. I was told about Fernanda, the proprietor of the shop, and about the personal interests she had taken to decorate the place before offering it to the public. A round small table fitting one to two persons, offering a cosy ambience was just enough to make me comfortable. The coffee was beautiful, the cookie was even more beautiful. When I try a confectionery I go with its taste but it is equally important that it carries its personality. It must be finely crafted with perfect finishing touches, not deviating an ounce in its shape.
I had a book of poems by the famous Swedish poet, Tomas Tranströmer. I would glide through its pages and just take in a couplet or two and then take a sip of the brewed drink. The poem complemented the drink. In between, it would be glances over the magnificent decoration of the shop that had been carefully conceived with lot of attention to details. In a moment or two, I was cut off from the world of knowns and smartness and pulled into a world of unknowns, fantasies and craft. There is no doubt that coffee goes well with 'written word' and the other way around!
There were paintings lining the walls of the shop - some of them were abstract, some were thematic. What was inspiring for me was the colours they contained. Colours must attract our thoughts, and if they are aesthetically chosen, they must liberate us. I looked at them, got my eyes planted in them, froze my attention, and after experiencing all of it, I finally got liberated. Amazing collection of paintings they had - a must for art lovers to pay a visit.
There were two other sections to mention. On one of the other ends of the shop I found some garments, cloth-bags and embroideries. They were showcased for people to buy, if they found them attractive and useful. They looked pretty and neatly designed. The best part of them were - they were handmade and represented the work of an artist who knew the craft.
The final section that caught my eyes was the handicraft one. The best part here was that there was no settled pattern. Any small, affordable, well-designed item found a place in Fernanda's dreamland. Minute details were taken care of while creating these items and once again, the colours were very enriching, even though the canvas and scale was small. A round of applause to those creative hands and minds behind these items!
Any coffee place is incomplete without a conversation or a talk. We did that - Fernanda came by and we discussed about the prospects of the place, how she was thinking to make some small literary gatherings, perhaps a cooking workshop and some art exhibitions. We talked about business and arts and their mutual association. All of that was done on very simple, casual terms, yet the thoughts behind them were constructive. In the end, while leaving one thought came to my mind - sometimes some thing becomes special because there is little or no speciality in it. Instead, there is plenty of simplicity in it. We tend to not understand fully the reason - but, I can assure you when art or craft meet simplicity, it becomes sophisticated!
Pay a visit to experience the wonder!
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