Cafe de Coral is an iconic, Chinese fast food chain, operating in HK and the mainland. Many of the sites are below ground and serve great quality, great value food, from breakfast through lunch, tea and dinner.
Hong Kong is China’s Manhattan, a crazy, chaotic, non-stop city. Like Manhattan much of the food is aimed at visitors, expensive and of arguable quality. Café de Coral is squarely aimed at the locals. A local place, with local food, and in your locale. We collaborated with Stanley Wang, a photographer, and his commission was to capture the spirit surrounding the sites, a part of Hong Kong less seen but relevant to the customers. We then used these as part of our interior.
Real estate is expensive in Hong Kong, and space is always challenged. It’s not unusual for apartments to have no kitchen at all, and as such it’s normal to eat out all the time. Café de Coral rewards this with a quiet place that welcomes you, a sanctuary in contrast to the streets above; a café where you rest, regroup and recharge.
To achieve this, we used a restrained pallete of whites, warm timber and terrazzo, with hints of colour supplemented with photography from the street.
Despite its ambitions to be a calm the interior it’s also an intensively active working space, turning over quickly and full of activity.
