A little history about Jelinek Cork and fishing floats

During the 1970s, cork fishing floats represented a good portion of Jelinek Cork sales. The interesting thing was these floats were not new and they were not used for fishing. Rather, they were used floats and they were hung as decorations in many seafood restaurants and bars across North America.

Henry Jelinek tells us the story:
"We obtained these floats by travelling to fishing villages and towns surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. We purchased the floats used on fish nets directly from the fishermen. They were happy to sell them to us because they could use the money to buy new floats. I often think they thought we were a bit crazy buying old floats from them ... especially since they could buy new floats and still have some money left over. In most cases, the new floats were purchased from us as well .... so it was a good deal all around."

Restaurants and cork

I ate in my fair share of restaurants this holiday season - from upscale restaurants to cafes and order at the bar greasy spoons. In my restaurant hopping, I saw various types of decor.

Yes - the main reason we go to restaurants is to eat and drink however who doesn't love a restaurant with great decor? Cork with all its unique characteristics is a great fit for the decor of a restaurant - from cork flooring to cork wall panels, from cork ceilings to cork chairs.

The accessories in a restaurant also help set the mood. Beautiful cork menus (made of either cork fabric or cork wallpaper) and wine cork menu boards (made by reusing wine corks) are creative ways of displaying menus and also make interesting conversation pieces.