So often, looking at restaurants and hotels to write about, I feel like they could be anywhere—there’s nothing personable or intimate about them at all. Which is why, when I’m in another city, or even in my own, I love discovering the magic of a tiny, one-of-a-kind place that could only be in the place were it is. It’s the reason I’ve been following the newly opened natural wine bar and shop Early June on Instagram and why I’m hoping, soon, to visit in person. Take a look.
Photography courtesy of Early June.
After the first location they had in mind fell through, they found the building that’s now Early June. “The windows were covered with a plastic sticker so you couldn’t see anything inside, the whole space was divided into offices with thin walls, everything was a bit dark and humid. There even was leopard-skin fabric on the walls of the toilets,” says Victor. “Even though we imagined all the work that had to be done, we knew it was the right place.”
The couple signed on the place in the beginning of June (hence, the name) and got to work stripping the interiors and breaking down walls to create one open space.
“We scraped the walls and, much to our surprise, found out that they were made of very old bricks,” says Victor. “We decided to keep everything ‘in its juice’ as we say in French, meaning we preferred to reveal the walls rather than cover them with new materials. That’s how we ended up with raw pillars and walls, all the result of decades of painting that accumulated over time. We only painted the walls in white to lighten everything up.”
(For our ode to French school chairs, see Top of the Class: Vintage-Style Chairs Are Having a Moment.)
Three more tiny restaurants, patisseries, and eateries we love across the world:
- Davelle: 13 Ideas to Steal from New York’s Tiniest Jewelbox Restaurant
- Måurice: A Small Scandinavian Luncheonette in Portland, OR
- Agrikultur: 10 Design Ideas to Steal from a Tiny, Newly Michelin-Starred Restaurant in Stockholm
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Join the conversation