Cookers Cafe in Moscow by VETER DESIGN.

Café culture is a huge part of Australian life—we tend to miss the perfected piccolo lattes and all-day-breakfasts when we travel. Over recent decades, we’ve put our own spin on the original Italian or French idea, so much so that it’s become a very integral part of our ever-evolving, amalgamated cultural identity. Lately too, when the coffee and food are pretty impressive just about anywhere in Sydney or Melbourne (Adelaide, Brisbane, and Canberra too), design can play a huge part in swaying us to one venue over another.

In Moscow, the concept of this sort of café—with fast, affordable gourmet meals, an espresso machine, and a trendy fit out is maybe more of a novelty. Cookers Gourmet Café by Moscow-based bureau Veter Design and Architecture, probably wouldn’t look out of place on Flinders Lane, but all the while it is still rooted in its Russian locale.

Located in the centre of the city, the 100 square metre restaurant features a marble breccia mosaic floor, designed to look like an icy lake cracking as spring settles in. The design is so fresh; it has its own hashtag: #cookershoes. In one recent post, someone is wearing mismatched flippers, you know, just in case.

Copper and navy blue reference classic Russian train compartments, while the walls—course concrete grey fading into velvety peach—soften the brutalist bones of the space. It’s distinctly Russian, located in the historic Lubyanka Square, but it’s pretty modern too: you’ll find almond lattes, sugar-free desserts and kimchi.

Cookers Cafe: Ulitsa Kuznetskiy Most, 21/5, Moskva, Russia, 107031

[Images courtesy of VETER DESIGN. Photography by Mikhail Loskutov.]