When Anni and Josef Albers entertained at their home in Orange, Conn., they would sometimes take visitors to their favorite restaurant, the Plank House. There Josef would rhapsodically praise the polyurethane-encased tables and the salad bar, whose suspended plastic dome shielded an abundance of vegetables from germs.
The no-frills charm of the Plank House might have escaped their guests. But to the two world-renowned artists, the Plank House embodied their beloved Bauhaus principles: simplicity, functionality and innovation. The tables, covered in synthetic material, were easy to clean; the variety of produce, shipped in from around the world, was a triumph of modern transportation; and the menu prices were accessible to many, not only a wealthy few. Even its blunt moniker—the Plank House—echoed the Bauhaus’s objective to reduce everything to its most elemental form.
