On a sunny weekend in Paris, we walked to the new Bar Nomo. From the street, the door opens straight onto the Parisian pavement. Walk inside and the atmosphere changes.
Bar Nomo is the new project from Laetitia and Arthur Cohen, a duo whose approach to hospitality starts with details. The space brings together cocktails, Japanese handrolls, design and a clear fascination with Japan, without turning any of those elements into a theme.
Red dominates the room, but never takes over. Plexiglass stools hold flowers inside them, a reference to Shiro Kuramata’s iconic Miss Blanche chair. Sculptural metal details wrap around the lights. The menu uses images of what you are about to drink. You start noticing one detail after another.
What interested us most was understanding where all these decisions came from. So we sat down with Laetitia and Arthur Cohen, the duo behind Bar Nomo, to talk about Japan, hosting, design and the process of building a place where every detail has a reason to exist.
Bar Nomo feels like one of those places where everything has been thought about, from what’s on the plate to what’s playing in the room. When you started, what came first, the food, the space, or simply a feeling you wanted people to have?
The thing that came first was the envy to have our own bar, after a recent trip in NYC, we realised how hard it was to have good food paired with good cocktails. Then everything started with the miss blanche chair by shiro Kuramata. I have always loved this designer and i had the chance to see a piece in real life, while being auctioned at Sothebys Paris. Then we started the discussion with my friend and designer Tom ducarouge
There are so many details in the space, but none of them scream for attention. How do you know when something belongs at Bar Nomo?
Everything based around flower, japanese psychedelic. Then when you create your own guidelines, its easy to follow it. Building Bar nomo universe was amazingly easy and satisfying for us
What’s one tiny detail in the bar you obsessed over, knowing most people would never even notice?
My painting by Giangiacomo Rosseti, hanging there :)
Japan is clearly part of Bar Nomo. Where does your relationship with Japan come from, and what did you want to bring back with you?
The small details that you see in different bars, as they are really personified. 99% of bars there are created and directly runned by their founders, so all of them infused their own personnalities, so it’s always very cute and touching. The details are everything
There’s something quite Japanese about giving people what they need before they have to ask for it. Did spending time in Japan change the way you think about being a good host?
I dont think Japanese people are good host, they are right hosts but their main goal is not to make you happy, it’s not make their job the right way, with dignity. I would say our service standards are way more french, and it’s assumed
Usually you go somewhere for the food or for the drinks. Here, ordering another cocktail feels as important as ordering another handroll. Was getting that balance right difficult?
Indeed, you are totally right, finding the right balance is not easy, and I think that guests will help us understand what they want in the end. There is always a difference between the cold project on paper and the real life happening, lets see how people play with Nomo
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