Aunt Studio Weaves a Story of Place at Café Tondo
Where expansive windows and artisanal details create a subtle dialogue between history and change.
Summary
- Café Tondo’s design, led by Aunt Studio, embraces the building’s history, blending old and new elements
- The interior features original scuffed floors and exposed brick, linked by new earthen red plaster
- Custom furniture and textured ceramics add a warm, handcrafted feel
Located in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, Café Tondo unfolds as an all-day gathering place—shifting effortlessly from morning coffee to evening wine. Led by Creative Director Abraham Campillo of Mouthwash Studio with Mackenzie Freemire, Alex Tan, Ben Mingo and Mike Kang of Locale Partners, the café answers the void left by fading “third places” with an ethos of warmth, generosity and true “mi casa es tu casa” hospitality.
The interior and exterior spaces, designed by Aunt Studio, unfold as a series of interconnected rooms, each layered with traces of the building’s past as a French bar, acupuncture clinic, and mechanic shop. Rather than erasing these histories, the design embraces them. As Aunt Studio co-founders Noam Saragosti and Juhee Park explain, they took “a strategic approach: deciding what to embrace, what to subtract, and where to intervene.” Original scuffed floors, painted brick, and exposed ceilings remain as part of the narrative, while new elements, such as a continuous thread of earthen red plaster, quietly stitch the spaces together. “The result is not a reinvention but a careful layering that keeps the bones intact and creates a subtle dialogue between memory and change.”
Sunlight pours through expansive windows onto custom furniture by OMBIA Studio — each piece handcrafted in Mexico with nods to cantina culture and daily ritual. Tabletops are set with textured ceramics sourced by Isabella Marengo of Bugambilia, and navy-hued accents tie the rooms together. As day turns to night, the atmosphere shifts seamlessly into live jazz, boleros, salsa evenings and a residency by Mexico City’s DJ Escuby.
At the heart of Café Tondo’s sensory experience is Chef Luis Luna of Guadalajara, whose background in Enrique Olvera’s Damian and Xokol informs a menu that tells stories of place, memory and tomorrow. Celebrating Latin American cuisines from Mexico to South America, Luna’s small plates anchor an evening programming calendar rich with salsa nights and live music — inviting guests not just to dine, but to linger, connect and belong.
