Montagu cafe

Architect

William Phelps

Location

Ernest Street, Crows Nest

Completion

2009

The fitout for Montagu* cafe creates a warm, lively and inviting atmosphere with a modest palette of materials. The primarily black, white and dark timber colour palette provides a neutral backdrop for the daily life of the cafe, with a black chalkboard wall acting as a canvas for menus and tableaux that change with the seasons. A number of the materials selections had a raw, industrial flavour that contributes to the cafe’s atmosphere, including exposed concrete floors, Formply joinery, secondhand timber cable reels, and a row of exposed oversized lightbulbs over the main counter.

The commission included the graphic identity for the cafe, with the logo cleverly suggesting a sandwich in cross section.

* Named after Lord John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, credited with the invention of the sandwich.