Wes Anderson's New Cafe is Here and It Looks Exactly How You Would Expect

Whimsical auteur Wes Anderson is known for unique aesthetics—from retro color schemes to obsessive symmetry—so it's no surprise that his new restaurant in Milan is pleasing to the eye (and hopefully to the taste).

Snuggled into the new art complex Fondazione Prada, the restaurant, called Bar Luce, just opened its doors over the weekend. As expected, it's absolutely charming. Meant to mirror a typical Milanese cafe, the restaurant draws inspiration from the 1950s and 1960s. It also purposely bears a strong resemblance to a previous Prada collaboration, the short movie Castello Cavalcanti. Two other movies, Miracolo a Milano and Rocco e i suoi fratelli have also been cited as inspiration. 

Some notable features of the restaurant include pastel furniture, Life Aquatic and Castello Cavalcanti pinball machines, specially printed napkins, and menus that match the tables. There’s even a jukebox packed with Italian tunes (you have to wonder if Randall Poster helped pick some of the songs out). 

While this café looks like one of Anderson’s sets, it's been built for the general public to use. The director explains on the website:

It is for real life, and ought to have numerous good spots for eating, drinking, talking, reading, etc. While I do think it would make a pretty good movie set, I think it would be an even better place to write a movie. I tried to make it a bar I would want to spend my own non-fictional afternoons in.