If you start getting really bored by the growing number of concept stores, with their often relatively impersonal and sometimes even artificial atmosphere, you are ready for something new, something different, something authentic: Le Rocketship Boutique Café. Easily accessible by hopping on line 12 and getting out at Saint Georges, le Rocketship Café, with its Brooklyn flair, is somehow unexpected in those little streets of the 9th arrondissement in the north of Paris.
Benoît Touche, the creator and owner, opened this little shop about a year ago, after having decided to radically change his life and career. He says that Le Rocketship Café is both the fulfillment of an ‘envie’ (desire) that he carried with himself for a very long time, but it is also a counter-reaction to what he experienced during his career in marketing. His job was often impersonal and socially not very fulfilling. His café-store is the exact opposite. You come in and find a wonderfully designed little bar, behind which Benoit gladly serves you an espresso (pure deliciousness by the way!) and chats with you about his passion for music and the objects you can find in his store. Benoit wants the Rocketship to be a social place, where customers can meet him, other customers and the artist behind the objects that he sells.
Benoît’s store is offering an abundance of creative decoration objects and present ideas. The owner knows every single item he carries in his store and he can tell you something about the artist who made it. The products come from local artists that live right around the corner, as well as European and international creators. All objects are hand-picked by Benoît, who spends a lot of time on blogs in order to broaden his horizon and that of the store. One favorite is definitely the very special lamp by Dyland Design Co., that was made by an American artist named Tony Oliver.
Why Le Rocketship Café? There are two reasons for the name: first of all, it is the name of one of Benoît’s favorite songs, ‘Rocketship’, by Ouest Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Yes! Don’t worry, I also never heard of them before Benà´it played the song for me. The other reason for naming his store a Rocketship is because you enter a little universe in which you can go around the entire world within a couple minutes, by discovering the creations of these artists, coming from all over the globe.
Benoît would like to expand. Together with his brother, a graphic designer, they already started creating prints and two different logos for the store. He also loves spending his time looking for antiques at the Parisian flea markets. Hopefully he will soon start reproducing selected furniture objects and launch their distribution in his and other stores.
Benoît’s store is a wonderful proof of how taking a risk to do what you really love and what you are really passionate about leads to success.