This Viennese Eatery Is a Visual Ode to Modernism, and Other News

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This Viennese Eatery Is a Visual Ode to Modernism

There are plenty of places one might expect to see elements of the Wiener Werkstätte, the Bauhaus, and pop art coalesce. But a restaurant in New Jersey? At Charley, a new Kaffeehaus-inspired bistro in Harrison, those expectations are delightfully subverted.

Situated along a bustling residential street in a former industrial suburb of Newark, Charley exudes warmth, playfulness, and an undeniable element of cosmopolitan cool. The eclectic bistro is the realization of chef Kurt Gutenbrunner’s longtime dream of creating a casual Viennese-inspired eatery, with design direction from creative director Max Cutler. The cocktail bar seats eight and features boho touches like Moroccan zellige tile and midcentury-inspired lighting by Map Design Studio’s Artemis Papadatou. 

In the dining room, fabric pendant lamps from the Austrian capital’s historic Loos Bar and olive green velvet banquettes provide a soft contrast to a bold poster wall that takes cues from vintage concert prints and Viennese Secessionist graphics. With a menu full of Central European bites (short rib goulash, shiitake spätzle) balanced out by a refreshing cocktail program featuring sips like white negronis and elderflower spritzes, Charley is a sensorial debut that would be welcome anywhere, from Jersey to Japan. —Jenna Adrian-Diaz

Home Studios brings classic European style to Salt Lake with Laurel Brasserie and Bar.

It’s not often a hospitality project comes to town in Salt Lake City with a national design name attached to it, but the Laurel Brasserie and Bar is upending the status quo. With the prolific designers Home Studios at the helm, the new arrival to the swank Grand America Hotel is easily one of the most high-profile openings in years.

Located in the thick of the re-energized downtown, the multi-room concept is an ode to classic European styles. In Bonne Vie, grab-and-go coffee and pastries are served inside of a space done up in duck-egg-blue millwork, pastel velvet chairs, and a checkerboard marble floor. Cherry-red leather covers the banquettes and illustrated wall coverings set the scene in the main dining room for chef Fernando Soberanis’ Euro-American spins such as butter poached prawns with cauliflower pureé and classic steak frites accompanied by béarnaise butter and hand-cut fries.—Nate Storey

Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila is making bricks from post-production agave fibers.

“Kendall Jenner’s popular 818 Tequila company partnered with Mexican nonprofit SACRED, which works to support the rural Mexican communities that produce agave spirits. Together they started the 818 Bricks Program, using 818 Tequila’s post-production agave fibers to create adobe bricks. The first batch of bricks has just been completed and will be used to build a school library and a tasting room for a family-run distillery—145 miles away from 818’s distillery in the Mexican region of Jalisco.” —[H/T Fast Company]

Amazon secures approval to build a helix-shaped tower at its HQ2 in Washington.

“The Arlington County Board gave unanimous approval Saturday to Amazon’s plans to build a unique, helix-shaped tower as the centerpiece of its emerging second headquarters in northern Virginia. Amazon announced the plans in February 2021 for the eye-catching, 350-foot tower to anchor the second phase of its redevelopment plans. The new office towers will support a second headquarters for Amazon that is expected to welcome more than 25,000 workers when it’s complete.” —[H/T NBC4 Washington]

Christie’s launches a series of benefit sales to support ongoing relief efforts in Ukraine.

“Christie’s has launched a three-part series of benefit sales starting on 25 April expected to raise $1 million for Ukraine heritage and humanitarian relief to be distributed via the World Monuments Fund (WMF) and its Ukraine Heritage Response Fund, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and CORE, actor Sean Penn’s aid organization. The initiative follows donations made by the auction house for Ukraine relief to the United Nations Refugee Agency and Red Cross and cancellation of its June Russian sales following Russia’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine.” —[H/T The Art Newspaper]

Japan’s tallest building, the A District by Pelli Clarke & Partners, tops out in Tokyo.

Architecture studio Pelli Clarke & Partners’ 330-meter-tall [1,082 feet] A District tower has topped out in Tokyo, making it Japan’s tallest building. Located in central Tokyo’s Toronamon-Azabudai District, the mixed-use tower—one of a complex of three skyscrapers that Pelli Clarke & Partners is designing for developer Mori—has reached its full height. A District takes the title of Japan’s tallest building from Abeno Harukas, a 300-meter-tall building in Osaka that was also designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners and completed in 2014. —[H/T Dezeen]

Louis Vuitton will soon release products from the last line designed by Virgil Abloh.

“Louis Vuitton is set to begin releasing products from its pre-fall/winter 2022 collection, the last designed by Virgil Abloh before his passing. Naturally, the product now has a sentimental context and serves as one of many tributes to Abloh’s lasting legacy. Taking a look at what’s to offer, Abloh’s touch is everywhere. Louis Vuitton also brought in Milan-based tattoo artist Ghusto Leon for some fresh perspective. The result: a series of suits, shorts, shirts, coats, and matching sets that exemplify a ‘boyhood ideology.’” —[H/T Input]

Today’s attractive distractions:

The Perseverance rover captures otherworldly footage of a solar eclipse on Mars.

Heather Benning converted an old farmhouse into a dollhouse—and burned it down.

A new exhibition spotlights classic movie backdrops and the artists who made them.

Entomologists named a newly discovered species of millipede after Taylor Swift.