2D cafes, with decoration designed to go viral on social networks, became fashionable in SP

Those who enter Gato Griô for the first time are usually surprised by what they see. From the walls to the furniture and the crockery, everything in the new café in Higienópolis is black and white. The impression is that you are not in the real world, much less in the central region of São Paulo, but rather in a drawing from the 1920s or in the pages of a comic book — especially when taking a photo and publishing it in the newspapers. social networks.

Called 2D-style decoration, fashion is consolidating in the capital of São Paulo, which has seen two new addresses of the type appear in recent months.

But the first café in these parts to follow the trend, in fact, was Yôr Cookie, opened in January of this year in Atibaia, about 60 km from the capital of São Paulo. But the trend goes further – these instagrammable establishments became popular in South Korea, starting in 2017, when they started to conquer the world.

So much so that the most famous of its kind in the Asian country, the Greem Café, opens the opening scenes of the movie “To All the Boys: Now and Forever”, released last year by Netflix. It was while watching the romantic comedy that Cássio Cicero was inspired to create a similar project in São Paulo alongside her husband, Eduardo Badaró.

Together, they opened the Gato Griô coffee shop in May, on Dona Paula Street, a charming village built in the 1920s, a few blocks from Avenida Paulista.

All decor was hand-painted and designed to look like a pencil sketch. First, the walls and furniture were given a coat of white paint. Then they received an outline of black lines on the edges. The result creates the optical illusion that space is 2D, drawn on a sheet of paper.​

One of the environments refers to a living room, with armchairs, paintings and potted plants hanging on the walls. The room next door reproduces a library, with bookshelves and lamps – all illustrated on the walls. The tables, chairs and windows also gain a black and white outline.

The decoration took 11 days to complete, says artist Luma Lage, responsible for creating the two-dimensional illustrations. “2D confuses us, takes us out of our visual comfort zone. That’s why it attracts attention,” she explains.

Apart from the drawings, the specialty of the place is coffee, such as Gatoccino (R$ 14), made with espresso, condensed milk, ice and cocoa powder, and Gato de Botas (R$ 18), which takes espresso, milk, caramel and paçoca. To accompany, there are suggestions such as the cheese bread portion (R$ 13) and cookies, which cost between R$ 12 and R$ 19.

In addition to appearing on the menu and in the name, references to cats are scattered throughout the drawings – such as those that make feline reinterpretations of works like “Mona Lisa” and “Abaporu”. Owners of six kittens, the owners wanted to pay tribute to these animals. The plan is to transform the place into a “cat café”, with animals released there for adoption, which should happen later this year.

A kilometer and a half away, another cafe with 2D decor, Rabisco, appeared in April. The founder, Jessica Bastos, also came across the famous South Korean coffee shop when she was doing research to open her own business and decided to do something similar in São Paulo.

Everything was hand-painted in black and white: the tables, chairs, walls, cups and even the floor, which resembles a wooden floor. Shelves, books, plants, paintings, sofas, rugs, a fireplace and curtains appear in the form of 2D drawings, scribbled directly on the glass of the facade.

The place is full of references to the art world and brings reinterpretations of paintings such as “The Scream”, by Edvard Munch, and “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, by Johannes Vermeer, as well as landscapes of European cities, such as the drawing of a window overlooking the Eiffel tower in Paris.

To create the two-dimensional strokes, Bastos invited two illustrators, Nataskia Keher and Adherbal Artigiani. She herself gave some brushstrokes alongside her partner, Vanessa Anzai, and the employees. The process took about two weeks to complete.

The colors there really only appear in the drinks and food, as in Monalisa (R$ 21.99), prepared with milk, yogurt, syrup and strawberry jam, ice and whipped cream, or in the croissant with pink dough. and filling with pastry cream and chocolate (R$ 19.99). The honey bread (R$ 10.90) also gains 2D contours in the white chocolate coating.

In less than two months, Rabisco has attracted customers who line up to pose in the scenarios, motivated mainly by the photos shared on social networks. Demand is so high that the partners are setting up a second unit in the Tatuapé region.

Their expectation is that the new address will also become an instagrammable point — and that it will help to multiply even more the fad of black and white photos that pop up on cell phones.

2D Cafe Griot Cat
TV. Dona Paula, house 115, Higienópolis, central region, WhatsApp (11) 96353-7590, Instagram @gato_grio

2D Coffee Scribble
Al. Franca, 1552, Jardim Paulista, west region, Instagram @rabiscocafe2d