Ikea Wants to Transition From Furniture Store to Lifestyle Brand | Eater

"This compact, urban-format store sits atop a busy Vienna transit hub and trims the typical suburban showroom and warehouse to focus on accessibility, sustainability and an expanded food offering designed to keep people lingering. It includes a full Swedish-style restaurant, a bistro and a cafe, with an airy fourth-floor dining room of all-white furnishings and floor-to-ceiling windows (entry subject to local vaccination rules), and it stays open on Sundays when many other businesses do not. The food program leans vegetarian and experimental—no fries, multiple alternatives to classic meatballs (plant, veggie and chicken variants) served with traditional sides or reworked in salads, soups or noodle dishes—while prices remain intentionally low (meatballs roughly €5 for eight or €6.50 for twelve). Small items like a bag of pickled mushroom potato chips (€0.80) have stood out; the site offers free Wi‑Fi, encourages travel by foot, bike or public transit rather than car parking, and functions as a multifunctional urban space used for dates, studying, photoshoots and even yoga as part of a broader “experiential retail” and democratic-design strategy." - Emily Cohen