Postcard began with a question: what if a brand had a place, a physical canvas, to explore, imagine, and show up for people in unexpected ways? Much like travel itself, it was never about one destination but about what happens along the way … the excitement, the learning, the shifts in perspective.
Created by Ste Marie, Postcard is a vessel for exploration and experimentation. Part listening bar, part social experiment, part invitation. Its focus isn’t permanence, but possibility.
In Chicago’s West Loop, a district long shaped by rhythm and reinvention, Postcard opens as a modern café and lounge where music defines the experience. The space unfolds around sound: its layout tuned to movement, atmosphere, and the choreography of gathering. Conceived with travel brand Monos, it marks a shift from product to place - an expansion of the brand’s world into lived experience.
Ste Marie shaped the project from the inside out, defining the concept, designing the environment, and building the systems that allow it to perform. The studio’s process joins spatial and sensory design with operational clarity, creating a framework for how the venue looks, sounds, and works. Their hospitality expertise, spanning interior and experiential design, food and beverage development, and cultural programming, gives the lounge its pulse. Every detail, from workflow to lighting tone to musical cadence, was treated as one continuous act of design. The result is a place where ease is deliberate, and every element operates quietly beneath the surface.
Light and sound move through the room in rhythm. Monolithic timber panels, buttery leather, and sheer drapery diffuse light and soften the vertical proportions, creating an atmosphere balanced between openness and enclosure. Analog elements, records, vintage CRT monitors, projected archival imagery - introduce texture, anchoring the experience in memory.
At Postcard, sound is structure. A system of vintage JBL speakers and a bespoke DJ booth with Technics turntables, selected and tuned by Uncanned, establish the foundation for how the space is heard and felt. The music program, curated by Alejandro Ayala (DJ King Hippo), draws from Chicago’s deep record culture, connecting local and international artists to define the room’s rhythm. His approach aligns the design’s precision with the city’s musical heritage.
The food and beverage program follows the same riff, light, precise, and collaborative. Crafted zeroproof cocktails and dishes are developed with Chicago partners including Metric Coffee, Rare Tea Cellars, Open Water, and Publican Quality Bread. The network grounds the experience in place and community while maintaining the clarity that define the Monos sensibility.
Next door, the adjoining Monos retail space presents a gallery of soft curves, limewashed walls, and sculptural forms. The two exist in dialogue: one contemplative, one kinetic. The store distills the brand’s principles into form; Postcard translates them into experience, turning stillness into movement, object into atmosphere.
Located just blocks from the birthplace of house music and on a site once tied to Chicago’s first pharmacist, Postcard is both rooted and transportive, more than a single venue, it’s the first in a series… a framework that can expand, shift, and reappear elsewhere, adapting to new sounds, scenes, and collaborations.
What began through Monos continues as its own exploration, a way for place, culture, and time to unfold together.
Team:
Interior Design: Craig Stanghetta, Founder & Creative Director, Ste Marie Carly Zimmerman, Associate, Ste Marie Treana Chase, Technical Director, Ste Marie Kailey DeRubeis, Food and Beverage Director, Ste Marie Priscilla Lee, Senior Designer, Ste Marie Lynn Atme, Designer, Ste Marie Milton Grant, Project Manager, Ste Marie
Collaborators: FFE Procurement Ensemble Projects
Architects: Andy Estabrooks, Associate, BKA Architects Sungjong Park, Associate, BKA Architects
Mechanical/Electrical Engineers: Joshua Everett P.E., Principal, National Engineering
Lighting Designers: Rachel D Eichorn, Principal Lighting Design Director, Shimstone Design Studio LLC
Music Curator & Programming Consultant: Alejandro Ayala (DJ King Hippo)
Sound Design & Engineering: David Allen, Uncanned
Menu Consultant: Chef Daniel Costa, Corso 32 Group
Beverage Consultant: Andrew Kwong
Branding: Superfantastic
Materials Used:
Specialty Paint (Limewash) - Supplier: JH Wallpaint, Product: Lime Wall Paint
Resin Plinths - Manufacturer: 3Form, Product: 1/2" CHROMA, Color: Glow
Millwork - Manufacturer/Installer: Forte Fixtures & Architectural Millwork
Main Drapery - Supplier: Maxwell Fabrics, Product: UMBERTO, 119 SILVER
Sheer Drapery - Supplier: Alendel, Product: Berlin, 202 LIGHT TAUPE
Main Lighting Fixtures (Linear Cove Lights) - Manufacturer: Boca Flasher, Product: Nano Warm Dim
Main Lighting Fixtures (Recessed Downlights) - Manufacturer: Visual Comfort & Co, Product: Element 3" LED
Counter Top - Manufacturer: Corian Design, Product: Corian® Solid Surface Pearl Gray
Upholstery - Supplier: CTL Leather, Product: Preston, Light
Custom Tables - Manufacturer/Supplier: Suite 22
Stools - Manufacturer: Pedrali, Product: TX 4405
Sound System - Vintage JBL D130 Speakers & Vintage JBL 075 Horns
Mixing Deck - Technics 1200mk7 Turntable w. Ortofon Cartidges & Pinoneer DJM 750mk2 DJ Mixer
