Dining and drinking out shouldn’t just be a treat for your taste buds. Feast your eyes on these beautifully designed bars, clubs and restaurants around the world.
By Fiona Brutscher
The Prahran Hotel Restaurant, Melbourne, Australia: A beloved locale in a popular part of Melbourne, but with a noteworthy addition. The red-brick art deco corner house dovetails into an extension made of stacked concrete pipes. They do double duty as snug dining spaces and visually arresting facade features. prahranhotel.com
Voodoo Ray’s, London, UK: Proving that spatial restrictions can give birth to unlimited flights of fancy, this New-York-esque pizza joint manages to squeeze oodles of style into three shipping containers within Shoreditch’s Boxpark development. Bold pops of colour turn the basic boxes into a lively (and achingly hip) dining venue. voodoorays.com [Photo: Howard Stanburgs/Flickr]
Bicicleta Bar, Bucharest, Romania: This bar in the Romanian capital is decorated with recycled, refurbished, repurposed – the hint is in the name – bicycles. From Brooks saddle bar stools and handlebar wall lamps, to chairs welded together out of defunct frames, the designs range from clever to wacky. facebook.com/Bicicletabar
The Jane Restaurant, Antwerp, Belgium: In resolutely secular Belgium, repurposed former churches are no longer a sight to marvel at, per se. However, this particularly stunning example of a house of worship turned spectacular gourmet restaurant is worth a second glance. thejaneantwerp.com
Ammo Restaurant, Hong Kong, China: The design team behind this effortlessly cool restaurant took the site’s heritage as a British military explosives compound and ran with it. Hence the name, industrial materials, copper-and-camouflage colour scheme. The result is a unique space that nods to history without bowing before it. ammo.com.hk
Bar Luce, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy: Everyone who has ever seen a Wes Anderson film could probably hazard a pretty good guess at how a bar designed by the director might look: lots of pastels, vintage patterns and quirky accessories. Much like the universe his films are set in, this also looks like a place we would love to visit. fondazioneprada.org
Green Street Smoked Meats, Chicago, USA: This achingly cool eatery ticks pretty much every box on our urban hipster checklist: once you’ve found the hidden entrance (check), you enter a cavernous warehouse space (check), where smoked meats are served with rare imported and small-batch craft beers (check, check, aaand check). greenstreetmeats.com [Photo: Kari Skaflen]
Mr Fogg’s, London, UK: Less is not more at the Mayfair “residence” of Phileas J. Fogg, Esquire. As one might expect from the character who travelled Around the World In Eighty Days, the bar named in his honour is cluttered with all kinds of keepsakes, memorabilia and curiosities from across the globe. mr-foggs.com
Evans and Peel Detective Agency, London, UK: Sure, the speakeasy thing has been done (some might say overdone), but nowhere has the concept been so thoroughly executed. In fact, until you’ve found the unmarked entrance, muttered secretively to the doorman and passed through the hidden door behind a bookcase, there is little to indicate that this is not actually a detective agency straight out of a film noir. evansandpeel.com
Society, Beirut, Lebanon: Start a stylish night out with your head in the clouds at Society Wine Bar, before moving on to a ceiling of gilded cymbals at the Bistro, both within Lebanon’s quietly trendy Saifi Suites. saifisuites.com
&Made, Singapore: Like a classic American diner crossed with a French brasserie on steroids, this luxe burger bar is not afraid to shamelessly mix its interiors inspirations. The 8-bit pixel art jumbling the standard black and white tiles, the omnipresent vintage marquee-light ampersand, the elaborately draped exposed lamp cords… they all cite deco traditions, tongue firmly in cheek. andmade.sg
Miss Ko, Paris, France: If Alice’s rabbit hole had a Japanese counterpart, it might look a lot like this, the latest venture by the ever-prolific Philippe Starck. Whether or not you wish to dine surrounded by floating shape-shifting heads, flying dragon animations and menus featuring full-body tattooed naked ladies, the visual overkill makes for an entertaining night out. miss-ko.com
JG Domestic, Philadelphia, USA: The reclaimed wood, abundant greenery, mismatched tea-towel-style seating and bric-a-brac on display at this spacious restaurant all scream local, organic and authentic. Good thing the kitchen delivers just that, with an all-American menu featuring “the finest available domestic ingredients.” philadelphia.jgdomestic.com
M.N. ROY, Mexico City, Mexico: Reminding us to never judge a book by its cover – or a building by its facade – is this lavish, rigorously styled night club, hiding in plain sight behind a nondescript, crumbling exterior. mnroyclub.com
NoMad Hotel Restaurant, New York, USA: Eating at the NoMad is less like visiting a restaurant and more like choosing between a series of dining rooms, each offering a different experience. The glass-ceilinged atrium is bright during the day and spacious in the evening, whilst the parlour is a more intimate space. Snacks are served in the busy bar or the library. thenomadhotel.com [Photo: Daniel Krieger]
Troll Wall Restaurant, Norway: Admittedly, the spectacular scenery does a lot of the heavy lifting at this restaurant within the visitor’s centre at the tallest vertical rock face in Europe. The jagged shape of the building mimics the peaks of the rocks, while a glass front serves up imposing views on a silver platter. reiulframstadarchitects.com [Photo: RRA]
Volkshaus Basel, Switzerland: Basel is not short of designer eye candy, or stylish venues, but this bar and brasserie within a venerable arts centre stand outs. Instead of adding layers of design, local Herzog & de Meuron architects stripped everything back to a sleek 1920s look. The chairs are based on the original furniture designed for the space, but each one varies slightly in shape. volkshaus-basel.ch
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.