Gazda Café

Lviv has no shortage of good cafés. But Gazda Cafe at 73 Shevchenko Street is a different proposition altogether. The Gazda Group venue opened in September 2024 as the beating heart of LEV Lifestyle Hotel — the city's first personalised hotel. Nothing here is accidental: not the food, not the architecture, not the furniture.

The name sets the tone: "gazda" is a Ukrainian word for host — a keeper of the house. That idea underpins every decision in the project, from the menu to the design of each space.

Interior: Tradition Through a Contemporary Lens

The interior was designed by Lviv-based Kostin Design Studio. The brief was demanding: to speak about Ukrainian culture and authenticity in a new, non-literal way — without folk clichés, but with unmistakable roots.

The focal point of the lobby is the bar counter, draped in linen fabric embroidered with bespoke branded motifs. The traditional vyshyvanka is reinterpreted as a corporate identity: the ornament remains, but gains a thoroughly modern register. Above the counter, an industrial pipe structure contrasts with the warm ochre plaster walls. Timber, metal, fabric — modest materials, precisely combined.

Sheaves of wheat at the entrance, a terracotta colour palette, wooden slat panels — alongside clean-cut typography, industrial details and full-height glazed façades. This is a place where tradition and evolution coexist without apology.

Three Terraces, Three Moods

Gazda Cafe has three outdoor seating areas. The street-facing terrace along the hotel façade is open, lively, urban. The sheltered inner courtyard patio is more intimate, with timber decking and a large parasol. The upper-floor terrace gives onto the rooftops of Lviv and the sky above the hotel's internal atrium.

All three spaces share a single colour statement: a confident red against the neutral urban backdrop. A bold choice — and it works.

Furniture as Part of the Concept

Terrace furniture was specified zone by zone — and the result reads accordingly.

The street-level terrace along the hotel façade is furnished with Summer A-2522 chairs — a lightweight metal frame with a distinctive mesh back. The upper-floor terrace overlooking the Lviv rooftops features Summer B-2520 armchairs — the same collection in a more relaxed configuration suited to unhurried dining. Powder-coated in the brand's signature red, both models become a recognisable element of outdoor branding.

The inner courtyard patio is furnished with Nolita B-3655 armchairs from Italian manufacturer Pedrali — a collection that traces its lineage to Mario Pedrali's original metal garden chairs of 1963. The steel rod construction is fully weather and UV resistant, and stacks up to ten units — exactly what a high-volume hospitality setting demands. In the Gazda project, the terrace chairs become a fully integrated branding element.

Eco-2452 terrace tables with a clean rectangular profile complement the seating across all three levels — a single table line that ties spaces of very different character into one coherent system.

The inner courtyard is shaded by an Astro 3×3 m parasol from Scolaro in a warm beige canopy — a quiet, neutral counterpoint to the red furniture that gives the space its equilibrium.