The Pantone Café Returns to Monaco

Monaco’s dining scene gets a lot more colorful with the return of the Pantone Café. First launched on the shores of the French Riviera last summer, the boite is the world’s first to boast a menu color-coded with Pantone’s famed spectrum.

“In today’s design-obsessed culture,” says Pantone Color Institute’s vice president Laurie Pressman, “food provides one more avenue for artistic expression. Presentation is key as food’s taste gives way to a panoply of tints and tones enticing to the eye.”

Refreshments include fresh juices made in collaboration with Yumi, like the avocado-and-mint Green Eyes (Pantone 16-0224) and carrot-beet True Red (Pantone 19-1664); eclairs in Pistachio Green (Pantone 12-0221) and Strawberry Pink (Pantone 16-1731); and even a pizza in, of course, Tomato (Pantone 18-1660).

“Each color has its own different taste, smell, texture, and personality,” Pressman says, “all of which come together to inspire the soul and whet the appetite.”

Pressman is particularly drawn to the salad Verdant Green (Pantone 19-6026), which is says is “symbolic of nature and good health, a leafy green shade that speaks to freshness, growth, and renewal.” She also is partial to Sunshine (Pantone 12-0727) a blend of carrot, apple, mint, and ginger juices, because it’s “sparkling with heat, vitality, energy, and light.”

The café accoutrements, from cups to the coffee machines that fill them, are also styled in Pantone colors, as are the napkins, trays, and even seating. The shipping container-shaped café has a color all its own, Pantone 18-1764, known, appropriately enough, as Monte Carlo Red.

Pantone Café will be open through September 9th on Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum.