Best Restaurant Design — Winner
Designer — Bates Smart
Location — Southbank, Victoria
Jury comment — We can summarize the essence of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in one word: sumptuous. This is an interior that perfectly reflects the ambition of the venue and the chef himself – to transport the diner through a curated experience that is simultaneously calm yet exciting. Blumenthal wants everything to be an adventure, but one that engages the diner with comfort: the design of the interior supports this absolutely. Eschewing the brittle formality that can accompany the high-end gastronomic experience, everything about this interior is “squishy” – to use an oddly non-designer-like word – you sink into the deep comfort of this interior, both literally and conceptually. The experience begins with the entry, a dark and lusciously finished hall that physically transports you away from the “everyday” and deeper into the interior’s embrace. The dining room, and even the kitchen, are all tailored to emphasize the fact that you are somewhere special, and that special things are about to happen. The result is a heavily curated experience and interior that is equal parts theatrical and delightful.
24
ARTICHOKE 25
Design statement — This 120-person-capacity restaurant overlooks Melbourne in the space vacated by The Fat Duck and marks British chef Heston Blumenthal’s first permanent restaurant outside of the UK. Guests enter through a theatrical ten-metre ramp that has its own aroma of damp moss, wood smoke and leather. The ramp has the illusion of becoming increasingly smaller as guests walk towards a kaleidoscope. A concealed sliding panel opens to reveal the restaurant’s host desk and show kitchen. The cocktail bar overlooks the dining room with views out to the city and into the show kitchen, while the private dining room offers dining for up to ten guests and has clear views of both the kitchen and the city. The textured ceiling motif is inspired by the Tudor rose. Wall scounces above the sommelier station are custom-made porcelain Victorian jelly moulds.
26
Best Restaurant Design — Winner project Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Crown Towers Level 3, 8 Whiteman Street Southbank Vic 3006 +61 3 9292 5779 dinnerbyheston.com.au design practice Bates Smart 1 Nicholson Street Melbourne Vic 3000 +61 3 8664 6200 batessmart.com project team Jeffery Copolov, Grant Filipoff, Melinda Chan, Elisa Varela, Andrew Raftopoulos photography Mark Roper
ARTICHOKE 27