Tag: restaurants

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Architecture Design Travel

2019 hospitality design awards: Rural areas feature

Blacksmith
Blacksmith. Photo: Lillie Thompson

Recognising the best in design across restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels and more, the Eat Drink Design Awards are Australia’s only hospitality design honours, and 2019’s coveted trophies have just been handed out.

“From a pink-hued bar in a country town with barely over 2,000 people, to a future-focused CBD restaurant, this year’s winners are very geographically diverse, indicating that in Australia, good design transcends location. It’s something that has permeated out to our suburbs and our regional areas, which should be applauded,” says Cassie Hansen, editor of Artichoke magazine and jury chair.

And while there were winners across eight categories, these are our pick of the bunch.

Best Bar Design: Blacksmith Lake Mulwala by The Stella Collective (Mulwala, NSW)

Blacksmith
Blacksmith. Image: Lillie Thompson

Located in rural Mulwala, New South Wales, the Blacksmith interiors are sophisticated, elegantly restrained, and certainly not what you’d expect to find in the bush! “The proportions of the indoor/outdoor space are well controlled, with the palette and materials showing incredible restraint and elegance. This restraint allows the few pops of whimsy to have a greater impact: vintage-style pink patio umbrellas might get lost in a busier design, but here they evoke 1970’s Southern California without devolving into cliché,” say the judges.

Blacksmith. Photo: Lillie Thompson
Blacksmith. Image: Lillie Thompson
Blacksmith. Image: Lillie Thompson
Blacksmith. Image: Lillie Thompson

Best Café Design: Via Porta by Studio Esteta (Mont Albert, VIC)

Located in Melbourne, this café and deli has a distinctly European vibe. “Meant to evoke the narrow alleyways of Italy, the floor is paved in stone offcuts procured from various suppliers and painstakingly fitted to create a unique and textured warmth. The sandy stones set the tone for the space’s lovely earth-hued palette, creating a feel that is tactile and intimate,” say the judges.

Via Porta. Image: Sean Fennessey
Via Porta. Image: Sean Fennessy
Via Porta. Photo: Sean Fennessey
Via Porta. Image: Sean Fennessy

Best Hotel Design (joint winner): Drifthouse by Multiplicity (Port Fairy, VIC) & The Calile Hotel by Richards and Spence (Fortitude Valley, QLD)

We brought you the finalists in this category recently, and it comes as no surprise that the jury had a hard time choosing a winner.

Drifthouse is a small, boutique hotel in Victoria’s Port Fairy, and the property encompasses a double-storey Victorian bluestone house, an adjacent single-storey Edwardian home, and a newly built garden pavilion and reception centre. It’s a tricky mix that the designers got just right!

“This was one of the outstanding regional projects we saw this year, and we hope its marked ambition is a harbinger of things to come from Australia’s smaller communities,” say the judges.

Drifthouse. Image: Martina Gemmola
Drifthouse. Image: Martina Gemmola
Drifthouse. Image: Martina Gemmola
Drifthouse. Image: Martina Gemmola

We’re massive fans of Brisbane’s The Calile Hotel, and we’re not surprised to see it take out top honours. Something of an urban resort, its restrained colour palette and Insta-worthy interiors have already made it something of a modern Aussie icon. “The design works to conjure an impressive sense of luxe escapism, creating a resort atmosphere despite its intensely urban location,” say the judges.

The Calile Hotel. Image: Sean Fennessey
The Calile Hotel. Image: Sean Fennessy
The Calile Hotel. Image: Sean Fennessey
The Calile Hotel. Image: Sean Fennessy

For more on the Eat Drink Design Awards | New Art Series hotel ‘The Fantauzzo’ opens in Brisbane

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Designers Interviews Styling

Meet the stylist behind The Grounds’ enchanting wonderlands

The Grounds of the City

Few jobs are as enviable as Therese Moussa’s: creative developer and head stylist for Sydney’s The Grounds. Even if you’re not from Sydney I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of this group of beautiful eateries; immaculately detailed, enchanting wonderlands, whose visitors flock from miles away, tripod and camera in tow.

The Grounds of the City

Take the garden bathrooms in The Grounds of Alexandria, a space normally refrained thanks to a lack of budget. Here it’s a different story: “For this space I used a collection of old horse saddles, whips, bridles, stirrups, leads, dried florals and old photos frames of riders and their horses to create a really authentic feel,” explains Therese. “Some of the items in this space were even brought to us and donated to us by our amazing customers.”

The Garden Stables Bathroom at The Grounds of Alexandria
The Garden Stables Bathroom at The Grounds of Alexandria

Having a lifelong affinity with design, Therese was just 12 years old when she realised she wanted to be an interior designer. “I was always curious going through all of my Dad’s paint colour swatches in his work ute and one day I asked: ‘I want to use all these paint colours, what can I do with them?’ He replied you can be a interior designer or decorator. And that was that!”

From there, she undertook a Bachelor of Design specialising in interiors; but it was her passion for art, styling, creating installations, textiles, pottery and colour theory that got her the dream job at The Grounds. Now she spends her days styling the many spaces of the Alexandria venue – from the cafe to the sprawling garden and hidden laneways, Therese even puts the finishing touch on the food displays. “I style the displays of our pastries and bread in our new Bakery and Patisserie and work closely with The Grounds chefs on the food styling for our social media channels.”

The Florist at The Grounds of Alexandria
Cracking the Easter Egg

Highlights would have to be styling on a much larger scale, transforming The Grounds for special events: a magical forest for Mother’s Day and Alice in Wonderland for Easter. “Creating a different installation each year for Easter is one of my favourite projects to work on by far! Each year we dream up new concepts and our ideas get bigger and bigger. It brings us so much joy to see so many people from all ages taking photos of the installations around The Grounds and coming together to crack our giant chocolate Easter Egg.”

Theresa

Therese also helped design the latest venue, The Grounds of the City, alongside The Grounds’ creative director Ramzey Choker and design firm ACME & CO. A dramatic departure from Alexandria, they wanted to create a new experience with a coffee house inspired hub for the city. “This project has been fun working on as it’s just so different,” says Therese. “I worked on the project from the beginning – from conception through to development with styling, uniform, furnishings and also on developing our experiential characters such as the tea lady, shoe shiner and coffee sommelier.”

The Shoe Shiner at The Grounds of the City
The Shoe Shiner at The Grounds of the City

Every inch of the space is thoughtfully styled from the coffee grinders, sourced from around the world and dating back to the 1920s, to the apothecary jars from France, with customised labels that include the names of the farms and regions where they ethically sourced the beans. But Therese’s favourite feature has to be the library: “The library is made up of all the business books the owner, Ramzey, read to create The Grounds, so all of our secrets are in there! We then had them custom covered in recycled leather offcuts and monogrammed with gold and copper foil by one of our regular local market stallholders.”

The Grounds of the City

With a new styling adventure never far away, Therese will soon bring some festive cheer to The Grounds with their annual Christmas event. And if her track record is anything to go by, it’s going to be magical!

More on The Grounds | Restaurants we love

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Interviews Styling Travel

The eclectic stylist behind Australia’s coolest restaurants and bars

So store stock

There’s a fair chance you’ve had a glass of wine in one of Belinda Cendron’s beautifully styled spaces. From The Winery’s Champagne Room and my all-time favourite bar Shady Pines Saloon, both in Sydney’s Surry Hills, to the Manta Ray fitout on gorgeous Hamilton Island, Belinda has a reputation for creating spaces that are eclectic, textured and chock-full of one-of-a-kind pieces.

Belinda
Belinda

Running her business Sourceress, which is both a styling, sourcing and consulting firm and an online shop, Belinda’s point of difference is her ability to find just about anything from anywhere. “I have spent a lot of time on the road — exploring greater Sydney and beyond — meeting makers and collectors just like myself. Years of such exploration has generated a neat black book of names that I can call on for my strangest and most urgent requests!”

So store stock
Sourceress store stock

[contextly_sidebar id=”hEKIKJNBEw6y3xPAig2c9EIF8F3FZqVM”]Believing it is these special items – from a taxidermy scorpion to a 15th century Flemish tapestry – that ultimately make a space stand out from the rest, Belinda is always on the lookout for the weird and the wonderful. “I’ve been collecting for years and have a great breadth of local suppliers that I work with. I scour markets and have my eye on auctions all over the world on a weekly basis. I also travel regularly. Argentina is an incredible source for antiques, Vietnam for all kinds of things and Paris of course for brocante. Also last year’s sourcing trip to South Africa was most inspiring.”

Manta Ray
Manta Ray

Using her finds in her styling projects or selling them on her online shop (and admittedly keeping some for herself!), Belinda started the Sourceress store as an excuse to keep collecting! “It’s given me an outlet to continue to buy with the ever-legitimate internal dialogue that: ‘I need it for the business.’ It also means I have a steady archive of goods at the ready for last-minute styling needs.”

The Winery's Champagne Room
The Winery’s Champagne Room

With her styling needs diverse and varied, Belinda particularly loves her hospitality design jobs, for the fact she gets to “play” and be creative. “In bar and restaurant fit outs the designs and materials are exaggerated, the layers are deep and the work gets to be enjoyed by many over and over again. That’s why I love it.”

One of her most recent projects, the new Champagne Room at The Winery, also stands out as her favourite for that very reason. “The brief was to create a champagne experience with the luxury and history of the Perrier-Jouët brand, whilst also adding the layers of character and flair for which The Winery is so well-known for. I designed the interior layout with the round booths, sourced the fabrics and chandeliers, custom-made the neon sign and personally hand-made the antique crystal adornments on the deer heads from old chandelier parts I had collected from my days as an apprentice to an 88-year-old, single-toothed, Italian airline engineer turned chandelier maker!”

The Winery's Champagne Room
The Winery’s Champagne Room

Renowned for her eclectic interiors, Belinda has now turned her hand to retail and residential work. “Right now I’m working on two retail styling projects, a new retail fit out and a couple of residential projects. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to choose between equally amazing marble slabs and have about 12 shades of charcoal grey paint samples scattered across my desk; amongst tiles, timber and stone samples. But, I’m happy here!”

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Categories
Appliances

Sous vide: the chef’s best kept secret, now available at home

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a demonstration of Breville’s latest kitchen gadget, the Sous Vide Supreme, by My Kitchen Rules judge and celebrity chef Pete Evans (yes, he of the activated almonds) at Sydney Seafood School. It was my first visit to the fish markets, where the school is based, and wow, what a fascinating experience! A great way to get the mind buzzing with fish and seafood recipe ideas!

Breville Sous Vide Supreme BSV600

So, sous vide. Had I heard of it? No. But then we all know I’m not much of a masterchef and my kitchen certainly doesn’t rule. Literally translated from the French, it means ‘under vacuum’. I’d heard of boil in the bag fish (takes me back to my student days, with mashed potatoes please) but this is something way more sophisticated and, Pete assures us, used by almost every top restaurant in the world. Who knew? When you order that perfectly done steak, the reason it’s so perfect is because it’s been cooked in a plastic bag in a temperature controlled bath of water, then finished off with a flash in the pan! Fascinating! Some would call it cheating. I’d call it smart.

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