playful interior for Singapore's new fast-food concept...
Food & Drink
August 20th, 2010
With a slogan that reads ‘for herbivores, carnivores, and everything else in-between’, Singapore’s The Salad Shop is a new Raffles Place fast-food/ready-to-go restaurant that, you guessed it… majors heavily in all things salad. Of course it’s not the grub, nice as it may be, that’s caught our eye – it’s the rather splendid interiors, courtesy of the supremely talented Singapore studio, Asylum – they who also designed the brilliant Chocolate Research Facility that we featured last year. Brilliantly oversized forks and spoons act as window masks, whilst an array of illustrated, bespoke designed stools add colour and character. The space itself is all streamlined industrial and the finishing touches to this eclectic interior are those wickedly hip ’scenic’ fabric lampshades. Modern, vibrant and endearing, Asylum have created a playful, inviting space that’s sure to be a success…
timeless Latin designs inspire Mexican coffee-shop...
Food & Drink
August 17th, 2010
Drawing upon Mexican design heritage and inspiration from Latin graphic design of the late 19th to early 20th century – Latin-American sign making fused with the product labels of old grocery stores – Mexican studio, Esrawe – in collaboration with Ignacio Cadena – have created a wonderfully diverse interior for this newly conceived café that, whilst steeped in nostalgia, has it’s very own unique flavour. We’re loving the bold use of pinks and blues, the beautiful fabrics used on the seating, and the splendid fusion of typography that adorns the walls, ceiling and products throughout…
bleeding-edge glamour in London's gritty East end....
Hotels & Travel
May 10th, 2010
London’s East End is not exactly brimming with design hotels. Sure, there’s the Andaz near Liverpool Street Station and plush members’ club Shoreditch House, but in the grit and glamour of E2 there’s a distinct lack of sleeping quarters.
Enter entrepreneurial hotelier Loh Lik Peng and his newly opened Town Hall. Located in Bethnal Green, it’s within walking distance of Brick Lane and Columbia Road, an area yet to experience the gentrification of neighbouring Shoreditch….
sensationally stark restaurant/art space in former power station....
Food & Drink
May 4th, 2010
Located midway between the City of London and Canary Wharf and situated inside what was once The Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, East London’s restaurant come art space – The Wapping Project – is a venue like no other… reminiscent of Tate Modern’s famous turbine hall, yet with a contemporary restaurant at the heart of it all. The Boiler and Filter Houses, stripped back to their 1890 form, provide dramatic exhibition and performance spaces, whist an in-house butchery and carefully sourced produce have defined Wapping Food and it’s place within London’s most serious restaurants…..
vibrant, contemporary interiors with a dose of retro...
Food & Drink
April 2nd, 2010
We can’t get enough of the stained timber strips that adorn the bar at Islington’s new espresso emporium. Replacing the old Tinderbox on Upper Street, this new outpost at the N1 Centre is a light, airy, contemporary space with more than a lovingly applied splash of retro, courtesy of London based Jonathan Clark Architects. Bespoke fittings, a beautiful colour palette – that is simultaneously rich and fresh – and delightfully retro touches, Tinderbox has a style and look that we’d quite happily see gracing venues around the UK…..
contemporary hospitality in Switzerland's capital of cool....
Hotels & Travel
March 29th, 2010
Our place of rest in Zurich in our recent Switzerland trip was the rather beautiful Hotel Restaurant Helvetia, an oasis of refined Swiss ‘cool’, with a very homely, relaxed standard of hospitality – a winning combination that has success written all over it…. With elegant, contemporary interiors courtesy of local designers, atelier zuerich, that fuse “Art Nouveau with dandy chic”, the Helvetia has a charming new style that works so well with the original elements that have been so lovingly retained from it’s original 19th century splendour. Having enjoyed a fabulous dinner in the locally renowned restaurant with Leopold, the architect behind the restoration and co-owner Stefan, we were lucky to be privy to the emotion and passion that the team behind Helvetia so effortlessly bring to their guests. Centrally located in the heart of Switzerland’s stylish, culture capital, Hotel Restaurant Helvetia screams cosmopolitan cool and now, is certainly our first port of call when in Zurich….
playfully blurring the lines between 2D and 3D environments....
Food & Drink
March 26th, 2010
When commissioned to design a new deli from internationally renowned Indian restaurant Smoke House Grill, Mumbai based environment designers, The Busride, were posed with the task of creating “a fun, informal, buzzing Deli space, which turns into a mood-lit, quieter and more romantic evening space.” Their response was to throw convention to the wind and deliver a truly original space… challenging the diners conception of what is 2D and what is 3D by hand illustrating – over a 25 day period – each and every element of the interior, from the outdoor signage and main door, to wallpapers, cabinets and even objects such as the phone. Eccentric, captivating and, most importantly of all, inviting, the space created for New Delhi’s ‘Smoke House Deli’ is an unequivocal success….
frozen yoghurt and ice cream in simply chic surroundings....
Food & Drink
March 25th, 2010
With a beautifully simplistic interior and brand identity – we positively adore their quite brilliant logo – courtesy of West Wales based Freshwest, Brighton’s Lick also began life on the Pembrokeshire coast, when school friends Owain Williams and Ky Wright bought an ice cream trike and taught themselves how to make frozen yoghurt and ice cream…. A roaring success, thanks to their use of completely natural ingredients – and, of course, a lot of dedication and hard work – the pair soon set about a move to the south coast, and found themselves The Sunday Times’ ‘most likely to succeed brand’…. with a simple message, great product and lovable aesthetic, who can blame them?