Bordering on Boulevard Périphérique, the traffic-heavy motorway that encircles Paris‘ 20 arrondissements, suburban Pantin has gained a beautifully designed coffee parlour that wouldn’t look out of place in one of the happening downtown neighbourhoods of the French capital. The newly opened café Anbassa is the second outpost of an eponymous company, founded in 2007 by longtime friends and coffee aficionados Sylvain Chauvineau and Jacques Chambrillon, which imports quality coffee from Ethiopia‘s Welega province. The façade of the café and coffee roaster facility may be modest, but both occupy 125 sqm. (1,346 sq.ft.) on the premises of a 1930s Art Deco-style structure by architect René Tanalias (1898-1985) which was originally built as an office for an insurance company.
The interior design, created by Italian-Mexican architectural design firm OAR, not only honours the building’s architectural legacy, but also puts it front and centre. The approach is evident in the way its reinforced concrete shell has been exposed, becoming a beautiful backdrop, and glass domes have emerged after being hidden behind insulating panels. A series of modern interventions, such as terracotta-clad service unit and displays and sleek metal shelving and counters, seamlessly blend with the raw backdrop. Behind the café, clad in floor-to-ceiling glass and at the very core of the venue, sits the roast facility, allowing ample peeks of the in-house roasting activities. A corridor alongside connects the Anbassa café’s front section with another seating area in the back below a second glass dome. © superfuture.com
Anbassa
57bis rue Hoche
93500 Pantin
Telephone +33 9 55138071
Tue-Sat 9am-9.30pm
Sun 9am-1pm
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