The book café we always wanted to have
Jul 22nd, 2008 by iHanna
Where and how to have a excellent café experience.
It is a relatively new café in my old hometown Umeå, with a hand carved wood sign above the door. It is called Café Pilgatan as it is situated on the road with the same name.
It’s one of those dream cafés that we’ve talked about so many times. You know? The one we wanted to open and own. The one we wanted to visit and sit in for hours while sipping our tea or coffee. Where we could bring our journal and sit alone, or talk about books and culture with gathering friends.
Spacious. Beautiful. Cozy. With art exhibitions on the wall, second hand book this side by side with new books, covering the walls of the shop. A few vintage kitchen sofas to live in. All this and then the new author sponsored and signed chairs that is filling the café. Plus the place is owned and kept by librarians!
The shop is small but has a nice selection of pretty bookmarks, fair trade food and dark chocolate plus these cool Penguin paperback porcelain mugs that make me think of my friend Anna Ost.
One of the book rooms are dedicated to children’s reading. Vintage children’s books like these brings memories back to our minds as we stand in front of them and pet them. We think back to parents reading out loud as we admire colorful book covers as they don’t do come out like this anymore.
When not covered with bookshelves the walls show images of our friends; Öijer, Kahlo, Frida Selander and Strindberg!
And I forget time and sip my coffee until it’s cold:
Writing about the day that passed in my Moleskine diary.
what a great place to hang out in!!
Love book shops, love this one! would love to vivit but, alas, it will be a while before we are back in Sweden.
sorry about the spelling !!
ah..
i’m envious…
:0)
this place looks like such a treasure…makes me want to run out and sit for a while at my local coffe house :) perfect.
Wonderful, wonderful place! Thanks so much for sharing it.
What a lovely place! I am so envious…I wish we had something like this nearby…
what a perfect place!
lucky hannah - what a marvelous place!
I want those mugs!
Oh, WOW.
Hanna, that looks awesome. There are lots of coffee shops around here, but I haven’t found one with a nice homey feel like that one. The commercial coffee places are a bit sterile feeling sometimes…cough*starbucks*cough. I once found a really cool place in Michigan though (http://www.ravencafeph.com) called the Raven. There were books galore and couches. It was wonderful!!
xox,
Linnea
It looks like a dream. A beautiful beautiful dream.
ohhh Hanna that looks amazing!!!if i had one of these nearby i’d spend lots of my time there! :)
Oh my - that does look like a lovely place to while away a good few hours reading or crafting. If only there were a similar place near me!
I also love the fact that it is run by Librarians - those clever library people always do things so well :-)
The cafe sounds wonderful. I think it is so important to have inspiring public places for people to relax and be :)
Oh Hanna, I am so envious. This is a real booklovers’ cafe and run by Librarians, that’s a great idea. Wish I could be there. Hej da
I really love this café and the ideas around!
This is the first but not the last time I visited your site!
Hugs