{"id":171242,"date":"2021-03-07T23:55:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T14:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/?p=171242"},"modified":"2021-03-07T23:55:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T14:21:33","slug":"ando-restaurant-flavors-of-a-big-industrial-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/design\/ando-restaurant-flavors-of-a-big-industrial-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Ando Restaurant: Flavors of a Big industrial City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ando Restaurant: Flavors of a Big industrial City<\/h3>\r\n

T<\/span>he striking design for a new restaurant in the mid-section of Hong Kong whets appetites for the feast to come<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n

Restaurant designs are precarious balancing acts. Tip the scales too much in one direction and it\u2019s a recipe for kitsch. Aim for more subtlety and you may baffle potential diners as in what kind of culinary experience is on offer. And it should go without saying that restaurateurs must also beware the kooky kind of novelty design that ends up being the \u201cflavor of the month.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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All Photos Credit: \u00a9Common Studio<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

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Ando<\/a> gets the balance right. Courtesy of the JIA Group<\/a> and the acclaimed chef-founder Agustin Balbi, this newcomer to Hong Kong\u2019s fine dining scene serves up a m\u00e9lange of Spanish, Argentinian and Japanese dishes in an atmosphere that incorporates elements of these distinct cultures, without slavishly trying to reproduce them or pandering to the more obvious motifs.<\/p>\r\n

Brewin Design Office<\/a>, bastioned in Singapore, and its lead designer on the project, Robert Cheng, masterminded the design and oversaw its creation. In the process, they came up with some singular choices for both the materials and showing off the small space symmetry to its full potential.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The 30-seater restaurant is designed to complement the chef\u2019s Spanish-Argentinian background and the complexity of the restaurant\u2019s Spanish-Japanese cuisine.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

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For starters, the restaurant is located in the kinetic Lan Kwai Fong part of Hong Kong, home to boozing and gourmandizing options aplenty, and awash with a multi-nationality contingent of expats, locals and tourists (the Covid-19 era aside). So the owners and Chef Agustin Balbi wanted an inimitable setting that would complement the cuisine and also fit into this part of Hong Kong.<\/p>\r\n

The interior is stunning. In its press release for the launch, Brewin Design Office mentioned how the design was inspired by \u201can eclectic fusion of styles, cuisines, cultural influences, traditions and urban settings.\u201d For this article we asked the designer to elaborate on that statement.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe were inspired by parts of these cities\u2019 physical forms, where Hong Kong itself is an extremely dense urban environment, fully manmade and with multiple layers. This led us to the restaurant\u2019s concept of a \u2018slice of the city\u2019, using materials that can almost reflect the inner linings and fabrics of an urbanized, manmade city \u2013 rough concrete, patinaed metals, shades of greys and blacks, paired with robust and monolithic forms,\u201d Robert Cheng said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The central feature \u2013 a fixture which was designed as though the ceiling had flowed down to connect to a column \u2013 divides the main hall into two sections.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

That\u2019s an apt description of a restaurant that seems both slick \u2013 just the place to talk business \u2013 but also depicts the nitty-gritty of this cosmopolitan metropolis and is cozy enough to be a nest for lovebirds on a date or friends up for a good night out.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Working within the confines of such a small place proved to be both challenging and invigorating. In his design, Robert Cheng turned that shortcoming into a strength, which also helped to bolster the \u201cslice of the city\u201d motif. In a message the firm writes, \u201cWe designed the layout to take advantage of the double loaded frontage that the space has, especially because of the restaurant\u2019s small footprint. Outside of Hong Kong, it is unusual to work into a floor plate where 1,500 square feet represents the entire\u00a0 footprint of the building.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The space considerations yielded other discoveries. The kitchen window morphed into another aperture, bolstered by lava-stone walls, which provides what the firm calls a \u201cfish tank\u201d effect. To separate the main dining hall into a private room for small gatherings or parties, Robert Cheng and company erected a floor-to-ceiling central fixture that neatly divvies up the space and affords diners some added privacy.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

The palette for the restaurant mixes charcoal grey volcanic stone with some darker concrete textures, as well as greens and browns to create an industrial ambience that\u2019s still earthy and homey. To achieve that harmony, the hard surfaces and muted colors are skillfully balanced through the use of softer elements like the drapery, patinas and layering.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Brewin Design Office specializes in both interior designs and architecture. The firm executes work of varied typologies, from hospitality projects and F&B spaces within hotels such as the Capella in Hanoi, to high-end condominiums and select private homes, as well as\u00a0commercial towers in Asia. For the Ando project, the design team put many of its skills to the test and passed with flying colors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The restaurant\u2019s monochromatic palette, brushed brass, textured paint, and rough stucco is a reflection of an urbanized manmade city.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

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A glimpse into the firm\u2019s dedication to quality and originality can also be seen in some of the furnishings too.<\/p>\r\n

Brewin writes, \u201cThere are a few furniture pieces we designed especially for the restaurant, one of them being a long verdi alpi green marble table for the private dining room, which sits beneath a Lasvit crystal pendant light fixture. The green marble table pairs perfectly with the private room\u2019s thick, textured earthy mocha brown stucco, to relate back to Chef Balbi\u2019s food as so much of it is about where it is grown.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

In the end, it all comes back to the food. No matter how ingenious the design, restaurants rise or crumble on the strength of their menus and the quality of their cooking. That said, an often-repeated adage in the restaurant business states that location is crucial. Perhaps the \u201csecret sauce\u201d of any such venture\u2019s success is the design and ambience.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\n\t\t