Wood banquettes knowledgeable by Up-to-date York Metropolis subway benches have been paired with basic bentwood brasserie chairs at this French restaurant in London.
Set inside a brick-clad railway arch subsequent to London’s Borough Market, Cafe François is the sister restaurant of Westminster’s Maison François.
Designed by restaurateur François O’Neill and his group, the eatery serves a menu of French staples reimagined with international culinary influences – a hybrid strategy that the designers aimed to mirror within the interiors.
Upon coming into the restaurant, guests are greeted by mosaic flooring organized in petite gray, orange and black tiles that snake by way of the house.
“The flooring was created to set the tone and provides the client a reassuring welcome to the brasserie,” O’Neill advised Dezeen.
“We’re perpetually drawn to the ‘grand brasseries’ for our designs, with their cosmopolitan sophistication and their operational ethos within the artwork of making an all-day eating room,” he added.
Shifting by way of the eatery, guests cross an open kitchen characterised by industrial chrome steel earlier than reaching the primary eating room illuminated by floor-to-ceiling Crittal-style home windows and embellished with contrasting bespoke furnishings.
Stained bentwood brasserie chairs and mahogany tables fitted with rattan inlays topped by glass surfaces reference established Parisian eating places, whereas geometric picket banquettes have been constructed with built-in metallic coat hangers.
“Our banquette design was developed utilizing inspiration from the general public transport benches present in Up-to-date York and Moscow’s underground methods and the tables have been impressed by the restaurant Terminus Nord, a terrific establishment in Paris,” defined O’Neill.
“All these components preserve cafe tradition and ethos in thoughts – transient enterprise with fast turnover and laid-back model with a basis of sophistication operating all through.”
A perforated galvanised metal staircase results in the upstairs eating room, which is cocooned by an arched roof. A central metallic glassware cupboard was paired with the identical furnishings as downstairs, organized to suit the smaller house.
The restaurant bogs are accessed through a labyrinthine hall flanked by glass-fronted shelving stocked with stacks of crockery. Ground-to-ceiling mosaic tiles clad the lavatory, characterised by curvy partitions and spherical mirrors.
“Miniature particulars reminiscent of clocks in each the doorway and the loos add the established concept that brasseries have been station eating places and time was wanted as a supply of defending one’s journey plans,” mentioned O’Neill.
“Our hope is that the entire restaurant’s components mix to create an area that’s each reassuringly recognisable and intriguingly completely different,” he concluded.
Beforehand, Maison François was designed with hovering arches harking back to these seen in Ricardo Bofill’s La Fábrica constructing. Elsewhere in London, structure studio Quincoces-Dragò & Companions unveiled The Dover restaurant in Mayfair, which takes cues from artwork deco design.
