The paintings
Look up. Soft clouds, a garland, a figure in a red robe reaching for something only she can see. Anja's grandmother had the ceiling painted the year she married, and nobody has had the heart to touch it since.
The Salon
Anja's living room
Imagine the home of a woman called Anja, high up in an old Italian palazzo. One day she opened her doors to Dubai. Please, come in, and look up.
The painted ceiling of the Salon
Who is Anja
A host, before anything else.
Anja grew up in rooms like this one: high ceilings painted with clouds, birds on every wall, a lamp on every table, and the smell of coffee and cardamom drifting in from the kitchen.
Most cafés in this city are white and quiet and very tidy. Anja's is not. It is colourful, a little crowded with paintings, and entirely unbothered by trends. Nobody will look at you oddly for ordering a second cappuccino at four.
The idea is simple. You are not a customer here, you are a guest. Take the green armchair. Stay a while.
“Pull up a chair. Your cup is warm.”
A walk through the rooms
The gallery
The birds on the walls
Hand painted paper on a gold ground: birds on flowering branches, blossoms that never quite open. Stay long enough and you will find a bird that is on no other wall in the room.
The velvet
Bottle green banquettes and oxblood armchairs, deep enough to lose an afternoon in. Velvet wears in rather than out, and every soft patch is a story somebody stayed for.
The lamps
No glare from above. Each table has its own pleated shade, so the room glows from waist height, the way a living room should. After sunset we dim them a little more, and this website does the same.
The two doors
Quick on the left. Slow on the right.
Some guests want a coffee in their hand in three minutes. Others want a table, a porcelain cup and the afternoon. Anja did not want the queue standing over the readers, so she gave each its own door.
The Window is a green hatch onto the street, with a short menu and a brass rail to lean on. The Salon is through the oxblood arch, where someone brings it to your table.
One espresso bar behind both. The same beans. Just a different pace.
At the back
The library corner
Past the bookcase there is a smaller room with four armchairs and a window onto the skyline. It is yours for birthdays, book clubs and long conversations.
Private hire