Design by Mimesi 62. In Roman city planning, a decumanus was an east-west-oriented road. Together with the cardo, it subdivided the new colony into parts and connected its access gates, playing a primary role in city transit. The new project by Mimesi 62 intends to settle itself within the ideal network of Florentine wine and gastronomy with the same level of significance. Like the Finisterre restaurant, the relationship between Decumanus Caffè and the city is decisive. Located halfway up Via dei Servi, surrounded by the perspective view of the church of Santa Maria Annunziata and of the Piazza del Duomo, it reproduces this architectural framework inside, which makes it a veritable painted box. The use of natural materials linked to tradition, such as wood and stone, turns this project into a metaphor that evokes the urban stratification of Florence, with the purpose of highlighting its older Roman underlying structure.

The leitmotif of the intervention is therefore a mixture of a return to its origins and rough simplicity, a goal achieved thanks to keywords such as “reuse”. Characterising symbols include the large slabs of pietra serena, which, from the milling cutter at the Fiorenzuola quarries, are turned into wall lining. Or the original use of walnut wood to reinterpret the concept of counter, transformed into a multi-purpose strip that surrounds the room. The floor, made of polished pietra serena, extends the ideal neutral surface to the foot of the counter and the wall lining, working as picturesque background with its hints of shadows, together with carefully selected furnishing and ancient stone columns. The same friendly understanding between materials was obtained in the areas open to the public, where the sober backgrounds make the different colours of complements stand out. Its coffee, ranked among the five winners of the national prize “Bar e Ristoranti d’Autore”, imposes itself as a delicate mention within the rich and elegant Florentine architectural and gastronomic mixture.