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Saturday, September 1, 2018

COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / LONDON’S COLICCI COFFEE SUCCESS STORY

Colicci's award-winning copper kiosk Stratford City Mall

F
rom very humble beginnings, Colicci Coffee (founded by Ernie and Josephine Colicci in 1982) has more than 30 locations throughout Greater London in popular sites mostly in or near parks and malls.  It’s not a cookie cutter operation but rather an eclectic collection of creative cafes, kiosks, restaurants and eye-catching vintage ice cream trucks.
         The newest Colicci kiosk (this one in East London’s trendy Stratford City Westfield Mall) garnered the 'Best Outside Design' award one year ago at the October 2017 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards.
         The Stratford City kiosk is wildly creative distinctive by its use of copper.  Designed by the architectural team at Mizzi Studio (London).  Son Rob Colicci called the newest café “super ambitious and it paid off...Jonathan Mizzi and his team [created] a piece of architecture that defies industry norms.”


This kiosk's undulant form blurs boundaries between architecture and public sculpture, providing customers with a spatial experience, which is tactile, exuberant and unforgettable. With this project, we set out to create a mini-manifesto of sculptural form and material manipulation.

Waxing in true architectural vocabulary, Jonathan Mizzi calls the new Colizzi collaboration “...a tour-de-force because of its swelling copper roof, made using a combination of 18th century copper sheathing and computer-aided design.


“We developed a digital skin which reflected the eventual physical structure of the roof, we then divided its surface area into virtual tile segments – each translating into CNC-cut sheets which could be manually clad. The result was a bespoke jigsaw of 542 individual numbered copper pieces, assembled by hand with a pneumatic gun and 20,000 rivets to form the sculptural mass. Patinated finger-prints and hammer marks were left to showcase an earthy texture as viewers move closer to the structure,” added Mizzi of Mizzi Studio

Ernie and Josephine Colicci
Colicci Coffee began in the early 80s, when a younger Ernie Colicci moved to the UK from Italy to sell ice cream.  Soon, he met a young woman named Josephine, who became his wife and together they bought an ice cream van.

Providing quality product matched with keen business acumen, Colicci Coffee had 20 ice cream trucks in the 1990s.  About that time they were offered a fixed site within Hyde Park.  Of course, they would have to sell more than ice cream.  They jumped at the chance and have never looked back.  Colicci transformed from ice cream to coffee and food and have never looked back.

CREATIVE COLICCI:
When you have a leisure moment trainspotting at Paddington Station, look for a Citroen H van offering coffee and baked cakes from Colicci's own bakery. The van is a tasty example of the creative locations from the folks at Colicci, who are upbeat and friendly, even on the earliest mornings.
Early morning at Paddington Station's Colicci Coffee kiosk

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