Maiasmokk is the oldest operating café not just in Tallinn but in the whole of Estonia. It was founded in 1864, in the second half of the Victorian era, a period which continental Europe knows as La Belle Époque. The identity of Maiasmokk is inspired by the rich culture of the era as well as by subsequent interpretations of that culture. The 19th century was a time of inventors, a period in which natural science and engineering flourished.
The steam engine, photography, cinema, the electrical light bulb, the telegraph and a countless number of other inventions changed people’s everyday lives, leaving an enduring impression of the industrial revolution on the collective memory. It was the time of Tesla, Méliès, Edison, Verne and Eiffel, when people believed that technology would allow us to make all the utopias a reality. The magical and illusory was the same as the technological, and mystics and engineers worked to solve the same equations. Nostalgia for that era today assumes the form of the steam punk phenomenon in popular culture. It is a retro-futuristic genre of science fiction, where anachronistic technologies and Victorian aesthetics are the main tools of expression. This is the code that café Maiasmokk uses in telling its stories and relaying its messages. Steam punk is a cultural bridge connecting the brand’s dignified past with today’s trends.
