A pencil for cheating – #110

I usually research coffee before I research groceries.

Wherever we arrive, before the bags are open, before I know where the nearest supermarket is, I usually know where I’m getting coffee the next morning. I wrote about this awhile back.

The coffee is only part of it. Good coffeeshops often come with shelves: beans, ceramics, books, olive oil, some tin you suddenly need for no clear reason. Someone has already done the sorting before you get there.

Yesterday, one of those shops was Sponda in Ostuni. It’s a six-month-old coffee bar and small shop started by three friends from Milan who moved south after working in communications.

I had a flat white there in a small ceramic cup by Niki, who appears again below.

Sponda is one kind of shop I like: new, careful, still taking shape.

The other kind is Brugnara in Merano.

Brugnara is an Eisenwaren shop. Ferramenta, if you’re south of Salorno. It has the energy of a place that has no interest in becoming more photogenic for the internet. There is a man with a blue t-shirt behind the counter, tools on the wall, and a quiet assumption that you are probably about to buy the wrong thing unless someone stops you.

You walk in with a problem. You walk out with the right screw, brush, hose part or small piece of quality engineering you didn’t know had a name. Often it costs more than you planned. Often that is the point.

Sponda and Brugnara could hardly be further apart. One is six months old. One feels like it has survived half a century of retail ideas by ignoring them.

But they do the same job.

They filter.

They decide what is worth putting on a shelf before you arrive.

I like the internet for finding things, obviously. But the better kind of discovery still happens behind counters, in places run by people who know the difference.

That is how I found one of this week’s five.

If you’re new around here: Every week, I share 5 of the nicest products from Europe I’ve discovered in the past 7 days.

I scout, you explore.

With love 🌞
Jakob

P.S.: Missed the last edition? The Honoré “notebook for life” from Louise Carmen from Paris was the most-clicked product.

Olaio’s IK Chair was first made in 1969 and still looks perfectly current. The Portuguese furniture maker relaunched in 2016 by going back into its own archive. Made to order in several woods, colors and seat options. Also, their website gives each product category its own typeface. I like this.

I have not tried Calma Compania’s Plant Based Mosquito Spray. On our first night in Puglia, I would have reached for it. This Austrian, DEET-free spray is plant-based, safe for kids from 12 months and looks more like skincare than pest control. Which, for a mosquito spray, is already a small victory.

I know, a pencil is a pretty old-school product. But A) I love stationery and B) I went to elementary school in the 90s, so we’re fine. Viarco’s The Cheating Pencil has a multiplication table printed dark-on-dark along the side, almost invisible unless you know where to look. Viarco is Portugal’s only pencil factory, which makes the whole thing even better.

Caia Leifsdotter’s Semplice Kitchen Island, sold through Modern Métier in Paris, is built like restaurant equipment. The large version is 3.4 meters long, with a 5 mm brushed stainless steel top, oak cabinets and solid oak drawers. Love it. But pretty expensive.

I drank from one of Niki Ceramics’ handmade cups yesterday at Sponda in Ostuni. It held a flat white, which is already a small apology to Italy. (Sorry!) The cup was small, slightly uneven, and nice in the hand. I wouldn’t have found her online. I found her because Sponda had already done the looking.