One of the visionary promoters of the Romanian architecture style, Ion Mincu, has left us a valuable building: the present Doina House, a buffet located alongside one of the most exquisite avenues in Bucharest.
The work is one of the best inspirations of the master and brings about by its shape, look and details the patriarchal Romanian aristocratic house, brightened by the charm of the peasant style. The buffet alongside the avenue had initially been designed as a pavilion for the Paris exhibition in 1889, but remained unfinished due to lack of funds. For this reason the work was carried out in Bucharest in 1892 and entered the Romanian architecture patrimony.
The facade is surrounded by a frieze with floral ornaments on a light blue background carrying names of Romanian vineyards. The buffet in Kiseleff Avenue has a wine cellar and a restaurant with a garden, in use throughout the year. The rooms of the restaurant are built in a Romanian style , the walls upholstered with wooden panels and the ceilings decorated with beams and wooden ornaments. The architecture of the wine cellar reminds one of the peasant style. The terrace is open, and has arcades suspended on thin pillars made of carved wood.
The buffet in the avenue hasn't been altered in time, and the shape it has today is the original one. In 1993 there was the start of the restoration of this little jewel, built in the spirit of a strong renaissance in the Romanian architectural style, to which it belongs.