Midway on the road between Palmyra and Damascus – on the road that runs true through a desert landscape direct to Baghdad – is the Bagdad Cafe 66. Actually built and named after the movie of the same name, it is a most welcome stop for lunch, mint tea or just a change of view.
We stopped for lunch – a delicious offering of the usual mezzes and salads rounded off with a glass of fresh mint tea. The property of a most enterprising pair of multi-talented Syrian men with wide smiles, it is a quintessential example of pentimento; the long, bright central room of the cafe is hung with bad oil paintings, and dusty saddlebags, faded postcards and even a too-realistic spider hanging in a trick spider web. Carpets piled high act as cushions and banquette dividers; folding tin tables quickly snap open to hold the saucers of goodies. No other etiquette is needed here save for an open heart, a healthy contribution to the general conversation and a good appetite.
Before climbing back in to our van (which by this time looked like our living cum bedroom), Talib handed us the cafe’s business card. It might have been 48 degrees centigrade when we lunched at Bagdad Cafe but the card showed a different view of the landscape: Bagdad Cafe 66 in a desert covered in snow!
John Derian is a treasure. It's not that there aren't many with talent and vision because there are, the world over. But Derian has other attributes that make him so beloved. His eye is unerring, his sense of scale is perfect, he layers cultures and eras seamlessly in a room. And he is accessible in brick and mortar. His two shops on East Second Street have been haunts for years. One carries the decoupage he designs and constructs locally (and that make the best gifts ever) along with the coveted ceramics of Astier de Villatte. The second Dry Goods store next door showcases quirky antiques, an assortment of vintage furniture, stacks of heavy french linen, Moroccan rugs and soft cotton Indian clothing. Both are small, but intriguing and interesting enough to seduce you on a journey of the senses.
And now, Derian has opened on Christopher Street in a double-windowed storefront of a two-story 18th century house. It's like walking in to another world. Traditional Astier, and the later Derian/Astier collaborative pieces, line the walls from roof to floor of the front room. The back room, wallpapered in his new cabbage rose design and lit by beautiful Balthus-designed standing lamps with parchment shades, offers a living room in which to settle in, thumb through books and albums, and rest the soul.
So, go to shop, or simply go to travel in spirit to another place and time.
https://www.johnderian.com/pages/our-locations"
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