Cantón 23, experiences of yesterday and today

A Vida Group's interior design work in the sensational Cantón 23 restaurant in A Coruña creates a versatile, contemporary, cozy space

Having a coffee. Decide which tapas are part of the snack. Taste the restaurant’s succulent menu. Delight yourself while preparing exclusive cocktails… All this is in a unique place that drinks from the past to give shape to an exciting current time.

This is the experiential proposal of Cantón 23, an original gastronomic space of the Montesqueiro Group with a lot of history told and much still to tell. The restaurant, located in the heart of A Coruña, inhabits the foundations of the old Aniceto, which was once the oldest grocery store in the city.

The affection that the people of A Coruña had (and still have) for this establishment is one of the promoters of the particular style of Cantón 23, which combines the memory of the past with the needs of the present. The original elements of the symbolic grocery store are preserved through the arrangement of replicas of its furniture while respecting the building’s gallery, built-in 1885.

The Montesqueiro Group has relied on A Vida Group’s expertise in the hospitality sector to create the contemporary dimension. Our teams brought to life the exclusive cladding that adorns the establishment’s walls, the ingenious furniture, and the original basketwork, which flourishes, putting the finishing touch to an unforgettable place.

A design indebted to its history

The floor plan and structure of the premises are due to their initial longitudinal nature, which has devised a concatenation of rooms that guides us from the entrance to the back patio. The itinerary allows one to go from one room to another in a fluid way, establishing a connection between the parts and separating different spaces and environments.

These are differentiated by their furniture and lighting, but without losing sight of the central axis that governs the entire gastro bar. The cladding created by the A Vida teams supports this roadmap, giving coherence and cohesion to a set that stands out for its diversity and versatility.

Finished in an off-white with a texture palpable to the naked eye, the walls of Cantón 23 are the perfect canvas for creating a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.

As an example of this effect, the design takes center stage in the upper rooms, which flee from right angles thanks to the application of our exclusive continuous coatings, merging ceiling and walls. At the culmination of these, prolonged luminaires provide soft and even lighting, highlighting the place’s haptic qualities.

Two fundamental lines of design coexist in the environment and bear the distinctive A Vida seal. The first, based on the vestiges of the grocery store, uses suggestive white-textured furniture and exquisite moldings to recall the forms of yesterday. The second is aligned with a more Nordic style, building neat, neutral and modern environments.

As icing on the cake, our team of artisans has created a series of basketry pieces that dot several rooms of the establishment, emphasizing our creations’ human and manual dimensions. Their expansive and organic shapes reinforce the creation of a living and radiant ecosystem, which does not hesitate to express its authenticity to focus the attention of all eyes.

A continent that undoubtedly reinforces the qualities of the content to create a contemporary experience that shows off its most authentic past. Welcome to Cantón 23.