A café created with Lucknowi grace and modernity

Offline Café 3.0 by Intaglio Design Studio seeks to add yet another glistening feature to the glorious city of Lucknow but with a touch of quirk.

The colossal edifice of ‘Bara Imambara’, a bewildering maze called ‘Bhool Bhulayiya’ and a lip-smacking plate of galouti and tunde kabab crowned under the magnanimity of the Rumi Darwaza: a panorama comprising of such rich heritage and legacy, flashes across any eye even with the mere mention of Lucknow. A recently completed contemporary cafe design named ‘Offline Cafe 3.0’ by Intaglio Design Studio seeks to add yet another glistening feature to this glorious city but with a touch of quirk. Inaugurated post the lockdown in September 2020, this cafe serves its users with a facet of Lucknow that is innovative, fresh and unique.

Café for the gen-next
Commissioning a composed all-day cafe, dedicated towards a young target audience was the only brief stated to the design team. Thus, Ar. Chinmay Ajmani, the principal designer of the studio, conceptualised the entire scheme as an amalgamation of pop and mute colours, bold graffiti, mood lighting and trending photo corners for the millennial generation. In his own words, “Vibrant shades and quirky graphics were the first things on our minds when we laid out the brief as design elements. Along with this, we implemented the final layout with an omnipresent layer of greens, as a part of the ceiling and the accentuating aspects, to subtly inculcate the nuance of nature as well!”

Design idea
The inception of this cafe is marked by the main dining area dipped in burgundy furnishing and playful components, accessible through a strip lighted foyer. With a wide range of seating options, set against glazed doors and ‘au-courant’ artwork, this space serves its users with a bit more than just tangy cocktails. Hanging planters combined with singular classic bulb lighting completes the requisite ambiance. On delving further, a corner bar with an adjoint pool table quickly catches the glimpse. While the latter seamlessly merges with the rest of the dining, owing to its ambient overhead lighting and neon signage, the former provides a quaint yet exclusive vibe for a solo euphoric moment. 

Designed with MDF fluting and a grey marble top, the final touch of a tin tiled ceiling ties this bar-zone in one disparate yet chic knot. The final yet most alluring segment of this design has to be approached through a series of glass interfaces, placed to provide a sneak into the elegant horizon. Created with artificial grass flooring, the distinct change of space can easily be felt from the first footstep shift of grey to green. From the hanging lanterns to the blue furnishing under a shade of creeping bougainvillaea, this terrace dining is sure to mesmerise the incoming users with its vitality and view. A special amphitheatre seating, laid out one end of the terrace, showcases the designer’s prowess to present the patrons of the cafe; with an aura that is toned to the apt level of casual and a serene setting to bask in the sunset. 

Where old meets new
While traditions and culture might be what constitutes the inner core of Lucknow, Offline Cafe 3.0, surely deserves its place around the mantle. With its detailed ideology, executed to perfection, this cafe by Intaglio Design Studio complies with their philosophy as stated by Ar. Chinmay, “Space is all about the people who use it. Be it an office, school or a simple diner; what makes a design timeless, is its relation to the users!”

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