WERE YOU BORN IN A TENT

Friday 7 February 2014

PANACHE CAFE & CREPERIE

68 Hesse St, Queenscliff

Visited: 25th January 2014

Design: There are times when you walk through a space and you instantly feel transported back to another time period. The entry to Panache created intrigue and wonder. I was a kid entering a lolly shop, I was a teenager entering a country takeaway.

There was so much going on in this entrance, such as the naive hand painted specials on the blue pool tiles, the mosaic black and white checkered floor (and some random patch up jobs with multi-coloured tiles), lead light windows around the ceiling panel, the vinyl lettering and the plastic strips to keep the flies and heat out. All of this combine with the 4 socket power board hanging randomly from the roof and plugged into nothing. For some reason in this setting, in this little town and it being a creperie shop, it somehow all worked perfectly to create a sense of nostalgia. I miss the plastic stripping of corner stores and fish and chip shops. Coming through the plastic stripping creates a grand entrance as you divide the strips like Mosses. They create the feeling of short lived royalty as you enter and everyone inside waiting for their meals turns to see who has come through the door then goes back to their trash mags. The sound of the plastic slapping together as they part and come back to their original position and their snaking motion as a sea breeze flows across them, fills me with many holiday memories. Such a simple design and yet so effective.

The door itself was a beautiful old white solid timber frame with a modest window at the top. The handle was the classic round stainless steel ball design with the push button lock on the back that always feels lovely in the hand. I could caress those all day. Let's not go there. You know the ones? You get them all the time on laundry doors in duplexes or townhouses. To add to the cliched smorgasbord there was even the, "YES WE ARE OPEN" sign hanging in the window. The one thing that really topped it all off was the sign in the front window, a before and after promise. Before, being an image of a reasonably unattractive, bucktoothed, balding character, then after you have one of PANACHES coffee's you will look like George Clooney.

BIG CALL!

Door resistance: 1

Closure mechanism: Manual

Draft: Medium

Squeak level: 2

Change return time: 10 sec

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PROFESSIONAL DOOR REVIEWER

Searching the world for the perfect door to eat behind.

First impressions are always important, especially for a restaurant or cafe. So many people are focusing on the food these days that I felt there was a hole in the reviews world. No one was looking at the most important thing, THE DOOR! Everyone complains when it is left open, death stares are exchange when the unsuspecting group of friends having a fun night enter the premises from the cold only to walk straight in and go straight to their table totally oblivious they have left the door wide open to allow an arctic strength gale force wind to cut through the previously warm interior. Like a scene from a western film where everyone in the premises stops what they are doing and cuts down the new comers with a deathly stare. Occasionally you will get the confident diner who gets up, walks across the restaurant and closes the door with a BANG! Just to let the new comers know they have done wrong and to NEVER, EVER DO IT AGAIN!!!!! This individual makes their way back to the table staring at the newcomers, just to make sure they got the message. The only problem is, is that 5 minutes later another group come in and do the same thing and he/she feels obliged to continually do this for the rest of the night.

Well hopefully this blog puts a light on the owners of these establishments and encourages them to lift their game and create doors that allow diners to sit and enjoy their meal, to give the diner an experience before they enter the building. It is also a thank you to the makers of quality doors who care about craftsmanship.

I have developed a scoring system based on,

DESIGN:

This is assessed by the materials the door is made from, whether the door is themed, cluttered or minimal and whether there is an element of surprise or not.

DOOR RESISTANCE: 1 to 5

1 = light push

5 = heavy push

CLOSURE MECHANISM: Manual, automatic or

hydraulic arm

DRAFT: Minimal, medium or high

SQUEAK LEVEL: 0 up to 5

0 = No squeak

5 = Ear piercing

Then the last assessment is the,

CHANGE RETURN TIME:

This is the amount of time it takes to get my change once I have given the waiter the money for the bill. Last impressions are always just as important as first.