One Shot Coffee
One Shot Coffee
When the owners approached us about expanding into a new space, One Shot Coffee in Northern Liberties had seen such success in their small space on Liberties Walk that they needed to expand. Though we primarily do residential work, we'll make an exception for a special project. The plan, designed by Chris Sheffield at SLDesign and Josh Otto and Mario Gentile at JxN studios, was to transform this house that had been a corner store and sports bar, into a 2-story cafe with, as Hospitality Magazine wrote in an article about the space, "a handcrafted, been-there-forever, homey feel". Although the building was in a great location and was over 100 years old, there was almost no original character left inside. The variety of finishes and spaces at One Shot were created with salvaged materials sourced by Chris Sheffield. Where we couldn't use the patina on salvaged materials to create that old-world vibe, our painter Tom matched old finishes to blend materials together and on the second floor created a painted checkerboard floor that he distressed before we sealed it so that it would look like it had been there for decades.
Commercial projects have unique requirements, and a restaurant has added layers of demands that made this project a challenge. Take the ceilings for instance. On the first floor you'll see what looks like a tin ceiling that has been there forever. What you're actually looking at are salvaged ceiling tiles with the original paint finish that were applied over two layers of drywall needed to satisfy the fire code. Since food safety regulations and common sense wouldn't allow that old paint finish overhead where people are eating, we used a high tech lead encapsulation sealer with a matte finish to accomplish the desired look in a safe way.
This is a project that is best experienced first hand, so head to the corner of George and American Streets in Philadelphia, grab something to eat and check it out. You'll see the cast iron post that once held up the corner of another building and was made not 10 blocks away at 9th and Girard over 100 years ago. Even the wallpaper is vintage. It is a great space and we can’t take all the credit. In addition to those named above and our usual fantastic crew, we couldn't have pulled this off without the Barunos, Workerman Studios, Mike Baker, Jamie Oakes and many others who pitched in to make this a special place.
