La Finestra: The Window Was The Brief
There's a small window at the back of a barbershop in Southfields. Out of it, Stefano serves focaccia sandwiches inspired by his home in Southern Italy. The name ‘La Finestra’ pretty much wrote itself. And as Stefano tells it, so did the rest of the brand.
Q: Hey Stefano! Why don’t you start by telling us about how La Finestra got started.
A: So I've worked in hospitality for ten years now. Everything from bartending, all the way to general manager, at some big venues. But I always wanted to open something of my own; it's kind of in the family. For example, my cousin runs a barbershop in Southfields, and this opportunity actually came up when a room behind his shop became available. He'd always been complaining about the food in the area, and I’d been on the lookout for a space for a long time without much luck, and then this one just appeared. So we got to work.
Q: La Finestra's branding feels very considered and minimalistic - what inspired this?
A: It all started with the window. In Italian, La Finestra actually means "the window", and that's where the name came from. For the logo, I wanted something that represented this too. So you'll notice it is the shape of the window, and the lines in the middle represent the layers of the focaccia sandwich. Everything came from the place itself. I didn't need to look any further than that and we are really happy with the results.
Q: Hole in the wall spots seem very popular right now. Why do you think that is?
A: I think it's because it feels very different from the usual hospitality experience. You walk into a restaurant or a cafe and you know exactly what to expect from the service. The window isn't like that. It feels unique. And I think that's why people are drawn to it.
What was great about chatting to Stefano was that he didn't spend months workshopping his brand with a designer or an agency. He looked at his window, and built everything from there. It's a reminder that the most distinctive thing about any business is usually the thing most specific to it: the place, the people, the reason it exists. That's where a brand finds its character. For Stefano, it's a window in South London, and the delicious focaccia that comes out of it.
