* Iconic Café is permanently closed.
When architect Selim Vural visited the building site in New York that he had been commissioned to transform, an object found lying in the rubble was to shape the entire project. What caught his eye was, he discovered from his research, a devotional painting of Krishna. The purple god with a peacock plume in his headdress was playing the flute for his love Radha, and the find prompted Selim to imagine the design that would become Iconic Café. Little did the architect know that the painting had been placed there as a token of good luck by none other than café owner Hemal Sheth!
Although Hemal had envisaged an industrial interior for his place, he was won over by Selim’s proposal, based around the Krishna love story. “I said to myself ‘why not? Lord Krishna is my god after all’.” Iconic Café was born, blending the modernity of the surrounding SoHo neighbourhood with the rich patternation from Indian art. A selection of tiles (from the likes of Tierra y Fuego, Villa Lagoon and Cement Tile Shop) provide the pattern, with support from 90-year-old wooden joists and waxed oak panelling. His experience here has prompted Selim to begin studying Indian religious art – and even take up playing the flute!
