Milky’s is a 300sf café at the bustling corner of Dundas and Bathurst aimed at customers in a hurry, either during a caffeine break or on their way to work. The idea that everything surrounding the offering—from presentation to hospitality—is as important as the product has helped shape the concept of Milky’s. The project emerged from a reimagining of the concept of the cafe which has fallen stagnant since the popularization of cafe culture, in order to create a reinvigorated expression of this ubiquitous space. This drive of recombining conventional elements to stimulate new experience begins with wrapping the floor, walls and ceiling with a cohesive geometry of 1,300 modular wooden panels and interlocking marble segments typically reserved for the highly formal and repetitive patterns derived from traditional inlay decoration. In Milky’s the modular logic of this system is instead used as a framework for disrupting such static patterning, with interlocking pieces of light and dark wood producing a high-contrast tessellation which expands and contracts, shifts and realigns in a series of strata, enveloping the customer in a sort of “caffeinated” space. The continuous design of the space makes visitors feel like an essential part of the experience.

All other elements within the space become camouflaged within this graphic counterpoint; thin metal shelves slotted into the patterns lines, sleek white countertops, cabinetry and equipment is powder- coated white to fall into the background, and the street face opens with floor to ceiling glass, casting the interior in vivid light such that the dynamic patterning becomes the predominant focus of the space.

Leveraging this spatial re-conception of the coffee shop, the grab and go business model of Milky’s adapts the customary habits of the cafe-goer to the uniquely concentrated experience which it enables. Rather than the dim and muted interiors which characterize the typical cafe, which have adopted many of the behaviours and functions of a public study space, Milky’s reconceives of the neighbourhood coffee shop as a distinctive experience able to define the course of the visitor’s day in a few moments. There is intentionally no furniture, but only counters to lean up on to enjoy the street view.

With the aim of energising guests, customers are met with bright lights following a Circadian rhythm throughout the day: bright and energizing in the morning and calming in the afternoon, to counteract our long, grey winter days. And a pop of bright colour to alleviate our mainly concrete streetscape. Featuring beautifully curated drinks, custom designed ceramics called Milkyware, in which the coffee shop’s rotating drink specials are served, and tiny refined art by local creators.