Bright Blue Restaurant Trend Emerges, Inspired by Yves Klein
The Story
A trend of restaurants using intense Yves Klein blue — a shade patented by the French artist in 1960 — has emerged in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Brighton, Berlin, and Singapore. Examples include Brooklyn’s Margot, Los Angeles’s former Horses and Electric Bleu, Brighton’s Patio, Berlin’s Cafe Gentil, and Singapore’s Punch Room. Hospitality branding designer Anna Polonsky said many clients request the color, but her studio is now steering them away to avoid oversaturation. The shift from millennial pink and neutral palettes reflects a broader cultural return to primary colors, with blue selected for its cool factor and social media appeal. Restaurant owners described the shade as representing whimsy, fun, and accessibility. The trend mirrors fashion’s embrace of primary colors, with Vogue calling Yves Klein blue the “winner of the night” at the most recent Met Gala.
Key Facts
- The article cites several restaurants using bright blue: Margot (Brooklyn), formerly Horses and Electric Bleu (Los Angeles), Patio (Brighton, England), Cafe Gentil (Berlin), Punch Room (Singapore), and the closed Only Love Strangers (New York City).
- Anna Polonsky, who runs hospitality branding studio Polonsky & Friends, said “a lot of clients do ask for blue” and her studio is “actually trying to steer [clients] away from it” due to fear of oversaturation.
- Polonsky said the shift to blue is a reaction to the millennial pink and neutral-dominated period of the late 2010s, noting blue has a “cool factor” that red and yellow lack because those are associated with fast food (e.g., Domino’s box served as reference for Ceres pizzas).
- The color originated from Yves Klein, who patented the formula for International Klein blue in 1960; France’s Centre Pompidou states Klein sought to “preserve the intensity of raw pigment in his monochromes.”
- Owners described their use of blue: Margot’s owner Halley Chambers said the “shocking blue color felt representative” of the restaurant’s “whimsical, hedonistic” ethos; Electric Bleu’s Mai Sakai and Craig Hopson said the color felt “fun and like we didn’t take ourselves too seriously”; Cafe Gentil’s founder Christophe Collado said the immersive blue was meant to make art feel “open, welcoming and alive, a place for everyone.”
- The article notes that blue restaurant design is appearing in response to earlier trends (millennial pink, wabi sabi, neutral) and aligns with fashion’s focus on primary colors; Vogue reportedly declared Yves Klein blue the “winner of the night” at the most recent Met Gala.
Conflicting Reports
No conflicting reports identified in the source article.
Still Unclear
No open questions identified in the source article.
Misconceptions
No widespread misconceptions addressed in the source article.
Key Figures
- Anna Polonsky – runs hospitality branding studio Polonsky & Friends
- Halley Chambers – owner of Margot restaurant
- Matthew Maddy and Nico Arze – designers who worked on Margot
- Mai Sakai and Craig Hopson – owners of Electric Bleu
- Christophe Collado – founder of Cafe Gentil
- Yves Klein – French artist who patented the blue in 1960
- Laura Fenton – wrote about millennial pink restaurants for Eater in 2019
Sources: eater.com
