AREA 8 STATE OF MIND
In 1908 German scientist Korbinian Brodmann mapped out the human brain into 52 different parts, attributing AREA8 to several functions including that of handling uncertainty.
It seemed like a great name for our small pop up bar in a corner of my marketing office in Matera that I opened 10 years ago.
What started out as a tiny bar for unwinding after work has steadily grown into a serious business that has taken over my entire 400 square meter office and grown into a six digit affair.
AREA 8 has been featured in countless magazines, papers and TV shows including the the New York Times T magazine, Vogue China, Elle Decor, Milk Magazine, Guardian, Figaro, considered one of Italy’s coolest bars by Conde Nast Traveler.
With a crazy XXC vintage vibe, and the space divided into our Cinema with screenings of old movies from the seventies, the Billiard Room where you eat on old pool tables from Liverpool, the Library with vintage boisserie that I bought in Amsterdam, our space age speakeasy for next level parties and our ‘superhero’ bar – where our favorite superhero is always BARMAN!
I must admit you feel more like you are in Kreuzberg or Shoreditch, not in the Sassi of Matera. The project has attracted a wonderful array of creative souls over the past years including Wes Anderson, Joachim Phoenix, Roberto Bolle, Jaden Smith, Omar Sy, Gal Gadot to do a bit of name-dropping.
Apart from the soul food and amazing cocktails and music AREA 8 has led to other super exciting projects and products, spin offs and collabs. It has introduced me to some of the most amazing people I know, led me to make some of my most stupid mistakes and challenged me in ways I never thought possible – even for a Capricorn, Angosaxon control freak like myself.
Looking back on ten long years, I feel incredibly grateful and blessed for the people have contributed to making AREA8 what it is today. Looking forward to the next ten super excited to create, invent, collaborate and grow.
AREA8 is a way of life.
#proudmika #blessed #grateful