Breakfast at Tiffany’s Is Now a Real Thing

The retailer just debuted the redesigned fourth floor of its flagship store, which now includes an all-day café.

Michelle Graff michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com

Tiffany & Co.’s Blue Box Cafe, painted in the brand’s signature robin’s egg hue, is located on the fourth floor of its flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in New York. It will open to the public Friday.

New York--Breakfast at Tiffany’s has evolved from being a popular ‘60s rom-com starring Audrey Hepburn to a real-life possibility.

On Wednesday night in New York, Tiffany & Co. fêted the reopening of its just-revamped fourth floor, which is home to accessories, tableware and, now, a café painted in the jeweler’s signature robin’s egg blue.

Jaye Thompson, who heads public relations globally for the retailer, said the redesigned floor was a collaboration between Richard Moore, Tiffany’s director of store design and visual merchandising, and new artistic director Reed Krakoff.

Tiffany named the accessories and fashion designer as its artistic director earlier this year--one in a series of executive moves, including a new CEO, the company made as it works to combat slumping sales.

Thompson said that Krakoff is weaving his style into everything Tiffany, from the stores to the websites to his first jewelry collection, which is set to debut next spring.

The retailer’s revamped fourth floor is lighter, brighter and more open, and it also includes less of something--merchandise.

A close-up of the table setting in the Tiffany Blue Box Cafe
Recognizing, like so many retailers, that stores today have to offer an experience, Tiffany cut back on its fourth-floor stock on display in order to dedicate space to the Blue Box Cafe and its on-site kitchen.

The café is open whenever the store is open and serves three meals a day as well as alcohol, which will be welcomed by anyone familiar with Fifth Avenue during the holiday season.

Also on the fourth floor, sprinkled in among the tableware, perfume and handbags, are a few of the items--in Tiffany terms, “Everyday Objects”--that have been lighting up the internet ahead of the grand reopening.

The $9,000 ball of yarn in sterling silver (pictured at left) had its own vitrine in the corner, and a sterling silver and enamel bandage box ($600) was among the objects under glass on the display table right off the elevator.

There was also the now-famous $1,000 “tin” can in sterling silver and vermeil, which Golf Digest described as an excellent alternative to “simply lighting the money on fire.”

So these “Everyday Objects”--the $9,000 ball of yarn, the $600 bandage box--were made by Tiffany simply to create a social buzz before the big opening, right?

In an answer that was neither a yes nor a no, Thompson said creating objects like these was “an expression of the quality we have here in

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the business” and allowed Krakoff to have some fun with the artisans at his disposal.

He added that earlier, he saw a woman buying the $55,000 watering can and, for the record, a National Jeweler editor saw a few party guests getting the “tin” cans engraved, so those apparently are of interest as well.

Thompson also pointed out that objects like the yarn, “tin” can and bandage box don’t comprise the bulk of the Everyday Objects collection.

Tiffany’s new Home & Accessories floor, including the Blue Box Cafe, is located on the fourth floor of its New York flagship, 727 Fifth Ave., at 57th Street.

The café is open during store hours, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Reservations are not required.

It officially opens to the public Friday.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.