Ireland’s top design talent is shortlisted in the international Restaurant and Bar Design Awards, an annual competition that serves up fresh ideas from the world’s best pleasure palaces.
Two Irish eateries make the shortlist for one of the design industry’s top gongs. Both are in Dublin.
Restaurants and bars have always been places to see and be seen.
And the Annual Restaurant and Bar Design Awards celebrate the pleasure palaces we all want to get bookings in, at home and abroad.
Recognised as the world’s leading international design competition for food and beverage spaces, the awards – now in their 18th year – celebrate the most creative spaces globally, and the individuals and organisations behind them, encompassing everything from ultra-luxe fine dining destinations to concept-led fast casual hangouts.
The list circumnavigates the planet, calling out household names as well as practices recognised in their own field.
This year’s shortlist has two Dublin entrants.
New Asian aesthetic
Popular Asian fine-dining restaurant group Eatzen, known for serving modern and authentic Cantonese, Szechuan, and Hong Kong cuisine, has two premises, one in Ashbourne, the other in Malahide.
It is the look of the latter that the judging panel has picked up on and has shortlisted it in two categories, lighting and standalone design.
Milimetre Design is the practice nominated.
Headed by Ronan Holohan, its recent work includes The Simmons restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel, The Mercantile Hotel and The Bank, both on Dublin’s Dame Street.
The firm also oversaw the reimagining of Dawson Street dowager, Café En Seine, a few years back. It worked with Antumbra Lighting Design.
City slicker
Covering the top floors of architect Sam Stephenson’s brutalist central bank building, renamed Central Plaza, Dion is the place to sip a sundowner in the city.
It comes into its own after dark, with Home and Style previously describing it as a “sunset boulevard in the sky”.
One of eight rooftop venues worldwide to make this year’s shortlist. Others include Sushisamba in Los Angeles and Cé La Vi at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
To meet the criteria for this category, a venue must be located at the rooftop level of a building, designed to offer panoramic views, with open-air ambience, curated for both day-to-night transitions, blending dining, lounging and entertainment.
The practices nominated are Journey and Henry J. Lyons. Dion is also shortlisted in the heritage building category.
Here’s a taster of some of the others shortlisted:
So macho
Acclaimed Italo-Brazilian cocktail bar Testarossa is located in Curitiba, Paraná, in Brazil and is a collaboration between entrepreneur João Pedro Pennacchi and award-winning bartender Ariel Todeschini.
It’s a throwback to the hirsute machismo of the 1970s, with design by Art D3 seeing it nominated in the small space category.
Colour confidence
Gooder is a skatepark with café and pizzeria that uses simple square ceramic and porcelain tiles to great effect in Dubai in the UAE.
The use of offbeat shades has earned its design team at Studio Pheasant a place on the shortlist in the colour classification.
Tag this place
The awards include a class for good use of murals and graffiti in a project.
One of the design behemoths working in the hospitality sector, the White Rhino Design Group has deservedly been selected for its work on Counter 40 at Parc Des Princes, in Tehran, Iran.
Glam squad in the Big Apple
Set in West Chelsea and just steps from the High Line, La Boca by Francis Mallmann at Faena New York channels Buenos Aires, the city that hotel founder and president Alan Faena hails from.
Designed by Peter Mikic Studio, it is listed in both the luxury and hotel awards.
Room with a view
Luzzi in Lisbon, Portugal joins our own Leon in the rooftop category.
It includes a riveting grid-like ceiling that can become a talking point should conversation stall.
It has been designed by Studio Patricia Urquiola and Mörschel Arquitectos.
Precious little diamond
Listed in the two categories, club and night venue, and lighting, Peridot in Hong Kong channels a chartreuse shade on all planes.
Designed by Studio Paolo Ferrari, Peridot is a jewel of a hotspot.
Rock solid
Designed by Badie Architects and competing with our own Eatzen in the standalone category is a beach bar that looks like it’s been hewn out of the rock.
Esca Playa is in the Marsa Matrouh resort on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, west of Alexandria.
Kiwi colour and heritage
Situated outside Queenstown, on New Zealand’s South Island, and offering a daring, modern Chinese menu, Billy’s is a tribute to the past and a celebration of the now – a nod to Arrowtown’s deep Chinese heritage.
The studios Alexander & Co and SA Studio are recognised in two categories: colour and heritage building.
Winners of this year’s Restaurant & Bar Design Awards will be announced in early October.
