A compact Lviv café shaped by awkward rooms

Mitte 2.0 takes over a former apartment and barbershop on Kniazia Romana Street in central Lviv, giving the neighbourhood café a second, smaller-footprint address. Designed by LIS and 38050 for brothers Artem and Mykhailo Pavlenko, it follows the original Mitte, which opened three years earlier, and keeps the same thoughtful approach to compact spaces and attentive service, even with a different menu.

The interesting part is how little the designers tried to fight the building. Instead of opening everything up, they worked with the existing warren of small rooms, arranging the café as a clear sequence: bar first, then a communal table, a window counter and round tables, before more flexible seating nearer the kitchen. The key detail is an arched opening with a built-in niche, shaped with four different radii and designed to soften sound between the main room and the kitchen.

Elsewhere, the palette stays restrained: earthy browns, repaired masonry, curved wall-to-ceiling joins, and lots of plywood and birch, with touches of oak, glass and metal. A shortage of retro parquet led to a mixed floor of marble, timber and microcement, while outside the façade was repainted, PVC windows were replaced with bespoke joinery, and planters brought in trees and wild grapes. One for anyone who likes cafés where the design work is quiet but very considered.

Our summary of a story from We Heart, published 6 October 2026. Read the original

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