THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI PROJECT
SMOKEHOUSE DELI VASANT KUNJ 2009
Smokehouse Deli was conceived as a response to the exceedingly successful Smokehouse Grill, and started it’s journey very far away from what exists now. Our brief was to create an Oriental inspired all day cafe-version of Smokehouse Grill, to make the brand more approachable and accessible, which by then had become one of the city’s most iconic nightspots. We started experimenting with IChing inspired rotating brick walls and surfaces, in an effort to create a day version of Smokehouse Grill. The Smokehouse Deli was intended to be a standalone, not necessarily scaleable brand extension of the Grill mothership.
SMOKEHOUSE GRILL MASJID MOTH 2006
THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING. On a sourcing trip to China we saw a chair, that to us embodied the spirit of the future restaurant better than anything we had designed till then. Everything felt too contrived when viewed against the simplicity and clarity of these two pieces of bent plywood. It was then very clear that we had to redesign everything.
What got articulated in the process was another sort of mood, very casual and effortless, owing no allegiance except it’s name to it’s parent Restaurant. We started thinking that Smokehouse Deli could be it’s own beast. We pitched the idea of hand-illustrating the entire Restaurant, and Riyaaz took the jump with us. What followed was a process full of ambiguity, and an outcome that we ourselves hadn’t been able to pre-visualise.
Creating a blank canvas and then populating it by hand with all the detritus of the Restaurant trade was a hugely informative process. It allowed a visceral engagement with the creation process, one that we had never felt before. Every line became significant, every mistake excruciating.
Through this process we realised the potential of the idea. Each drawing could conceal a story. The label on each illustrated audio cassette could speak of musical affiliations.Each small artefact on the illustrated shelves could be symbolic of the personality of the collector. Each ingredient in the illustrated cabinets could speak of the inspiration behind the menu. Smokehouse Deli started becoming a curated tiny museum of sorts, with nights spent in research and days spent in drawing.
The Smokehouse Deli personified someone we really wanted to be. Every element we drew, ranging from diverse interests in graphic novels, comments on consumer culture, tongue-in-cheek references to smoker culture and a host of other influences outlined for us a rich, informative environment that could offer only as much information as needed, without being prescriptive or preachy. It could be just pretty wallpaper, but it could also be a tiny city-museum.
PROCESS IS EVERYTHING
We got shortlisted to the final 7 at the Restaurant and Bar Design awards, UK. This got us thinking. Where could we take this idea ? The core idea behind hand-drawing the entire restaurant was Satire. The intent to create all the detail, all the romance, all the craft and all the ornamentation, using just a black marker essentially shifted the focus from spending big money ( in most cases stupid money ) on Restaurant decor, and in the end arriving at something banal and mundane, pandering to the cliches of luxury and style. We felt the Smokehouse Deli could be a placeholder for another approach, an artisanal connect with the “work� of designing a Restaurant, a DIY approach to combat our own laziness in design.
It could be a new kind of Restaurant.
The Casual illustrative style then percolated into every element of the brand, from it’s plating and uniforms, to food and beverage styling. The unique visual language then became the Brand’s personality
www.smokehousedeli.in
SCALING UP
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, CHANDIGARH
The Chandigarh Smokehouse Deli outlined a critique of the hardedged testosterone drive vision of Modernity that resulted in the city we experience today. We populated the clean, sterile Corbusier-designed shell with all manner of cute oddities, things that he would most definitely have despised. In our sweet desecration of his site, we concealed a critique of the bull-headedness with which his sweeping vision was executed, and the contrast of the resident’s mindsets with the shell of the city they were presented with. The Smokehouse Deli in Chandigarh referenced as well as parodied Corbusier’s vision and ideologies, in an effort to demystify them for inquisitive patrons.
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, INDIRANAGAR
“The best place to find God is in a Garden. You can dig for him there�. George Bernard Shaw Our Smokehouse Deli in Indiranagar referenced the Garden city idea, where we drew upon the rich and eccentric history of Bangalore, its amazing variety and profusion of Flora, and its history as one of the many Garden cities planned throughout the world. The idea was to create a small micro-narrative of the best of Bangalore, where we researched local shrubbery, many Art Nouveau references from the British fascination with plants and organic forms, local iconic bands like Thermal and a Quarter, and the Raghu Dixit project.
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, LAVELLE ROAD
Michael Lavelle, the region’s first semi-successful colonial Gold prospector, lived on the same road as the Smokehouse Deli. Our Lavelle Road outlet referenced the life and times of Michael Lavelle, and his partly successful attempt at finding a fortune in Gold at the Kolar Gold mines. We immersed ourselves in reading about the period, the high tea tradition ( initially called ‘Meat Tea’ since it was usually served with cold cuts ) amongst many other eccentricities of the Raj. We then illustrated tangential clues to all this history on the walls of the outlet. Each illustration takes you back to a hyper-local story, set in and around the same street the Restaurant occupies.
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, BKC
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, LAVELLE ROAD
The outlet at BKC references Bombay’s curious and mostly murky history with money. From the old Parsi fortunes made through the Opium trade, to the greed of our current crop of billionaires, the Smoke house Deli takes a fun look at Capitalism. Situated in a bankers building in the financial heart of the city, the BKC Smokehouse Deli takes a critical look at what we’ve managed to do to the Industrial powerhouse of Bombay, and the strangeness of corporate culture. We referenced the purely hypothetical nature of the Capitalist market, and fun stories around bankruptcy, thievery and our business community. The Smokehouse Deli conceals a dark take on all these topics, masked under pretty illustrations.
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, PHOENIX MILLS
The Smokehouse Deli, Phoenix mills references the Industrial Age in Bombay, when this site throbbed with the sound of Cotton production. Bombay was the Industrial heart of the country, and pulsated with the beat of thousands of workers at their mills, exporting cotton goods all over the world. This was a magic time in the city’s history, spanning across the Independence struggle, witnessing the rise of the Marathi theatre movement, voices of protest and nationalism surging through the streets. The Smokehouse Deli is located in one of the same mills, which has witnessed these amazing events and is now a modern retail destination. Our design of the outlet references these events closely, with hidden stories in every panel. The mills and their subsequent development also outline a dark stage in the city’s past, which we draw tangential attention to.
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, BANDRA
The Bandra Smokehouse Deli was inspired by the whimsy and eccentricity of the suburb, it’s unique culture and crazy residents. This one was close to heart, we referenced the suburb we love so deeply in every detail of this Smokehouse Deli, from Aunty Patricia Nath’s incredible stories about the history of the suburb, to details on it’s churches, from the commonly known to the totally insane. We drew clues to the panther cubs that inhabited Pali Hill, the Parsi architect of the Mount Mary church, and the beautiful textiles of Bandra’s famous aunties. The Smokehouse Deli at Bandra took a departure from the regular, and introduced textiles and prints from the suburb, in an effort to add a fun touch to the signature look.
A GROUP PROJECT
THE SMOKEHOUSE DELI, HKV
The Smokehouse Deli was a much larger idea than just us. It became increasingly clear that the project would benefit greatly from collaborations with other artists and other perspectives. With this in mind, we curated the next steps in the Brand’s evolution, pitching the project to friends and co-conspirators, to expand the mind space around Smokehouse Deli, and opening up the project to become a collective vision across various locations. Other talented architects and artists like Amit Chhabra ( LCD ) and Kriti Monga ( Turmeric Design ), and Saheba Singh ( TIID ) took these loose brand ideas forward in ways we could never have imagined. Smokehouse deli then gained a life outside the confines of our studio.
FIN