House Rules: The many ways of seeing colonial style

I recently returned from a trip to New York. Apart from being slightly astonished at how Trump Tower seemed to loom over Fifth Avenue like the Death Star in Star Wars (on previous visits it just seemed like overblown glossily tacky architecture; this time it was definitively sinister), I couldn't help wondering at how comfortable everyone seemed at the whole colonial thing.

I used to enjoy going to the Colonial Cafe on Elizabeth Street in SoHo, and it was only after it closed that I belatedly put two and two together to realise that, in the States, many (though not all) of them are proud of having been colonised by England and Queen Elizabeth I. I can't quite see it taking off in Ireland – we've only just got over our phase of ripping out Georgian buildings – but in the States you can revel in colonial style, and if you can't aspire to a colonial mansion, you can instead illuminate your apartment with products from Colonial Candle.

Perhaps this is because there the colonists went on to become the rulers, after ousting the English when they felt too independent. Ireland never allowed itself to be overrun to such a degree that the original inhabitants became all but invisible and voiceless. I can’t imagine the indigenous Americans being too keen on the whole colonial thing, but style and design do seem to be able to smooth a path over many types of historical inequity.

Imperialist history

In New York you can also eat at Le Colonial, a French Vietnamese restaurant, which is, according to themselves, “a truly delightful culinary experience. Like stepping into French colonial southeast Asia.” Decked out with palm fronds, bamboo, louvered blinds and wicker design notes, I’m sure it’s only a delightful step if you’re fully comfortable with imperialist history.

But maybe history fades. There’s a generation growing up to whom the imperial and colonial projects are pretty much irrelevant, and who would be more upset to consider eating at the Global Multinational Corporation Cafe (maybe one day such a thing will exist). How else can you explain the popularity of a restaurant chain modelled on a genocidal dictator – albeit one whose image was inadvertently softened by Andy Warhol? Welcome to Cafe Mao – I’ll have noodles with that.