The Hoxton Grille

GS Magazine - Autumn 2006

The Hoxton Grille offers all day dining with classic dishes in an environment that seeks ‘to marry the hustle and bustle of a bistro and the energy of a steakhouse diner’.

Simon Wright, Managing Director at Room Restaurants said “we wanted to create a relaxed, flexible atmosphere for a high end bistro restaurant, being individual and distinctive to reflect the heritage and feel of the local area. Studio 48 has created a concept that establishes a strong and unique ambiance that perfectly fits our aspirations for Grille and celebrates Hoxton.”
Studio 48 has created an ‘urban lodge lounge’ bringing in and capturing the eclectic urban nature of the surrounding location. In a warehouse style building, the design uses solid colour and natural materials, incorporating leather to reflect the tannery history of the area. Specially commissioned art pieces include paintings on cowhides, modern graffiti style screen-prints and unique lampshades. Al eclectic mix of furniture styles spans Louis VIX to modern leather booths.

The layout accommodates an open kitchen a bar and private dining zones flexible to different dining requirements.

Gabriel Murray, Creative Director of Studio 48 said “the environment responds to its setting and the modern customer. It seeks to be relaxing but stimulating, comfortable and confident and with an overall ambiance of a laid back, buzzy, lazy urban lounge”.

Gabrielle discusses the concept and creation of Grille. “We were appointed by Simon Wright John Pallagi of Room Restaurants, to create a grill room with the (then) soon to be completed Hoxton Hotel, with an international feel.
“We initially established the brief working closely with the hotel owner, Sinclair Beecham, the resident architect, Alistair Bell of Bell Slater, and Adrian Kilby, the brand creator of the Formation, to blend the restaurant design into the overall hotel.

“The thinking behind the restaurant concept was an idea to meld a buzzy brasserie and informal bistro into the recognised comfort of a classic grill room. It was necessary to capture the key visual anchors that express this within the overall confines of the hotel and lobby area. This was achieved by including banquette and booth seating, and incorporating the long bar and the open kitchen.

“From our research, which included trips to Paris and New York, we were able to determine the operational and design features that were needed to achieve the brand experience, the warmth and friendliness of local bistros and the pace and efficacy of the brasserie. We liked the idea of them together with the comfort of a classic hotel grill room. The challenge was to meld it all successfully and give an effective emotional expression that the customer would understand.

Our concept is open and honest and the branding, identity and menu graphic was to reflect this. Working directly with the client and Flat Cap Marketing the name ‘Grille’ with an ‘e’ was adopted. The reason for the ‘e’ was to reflect the exact nature of the restaurant, i.e. the grille the food is cooked on rather than the overly ubiquitous use of the word grill to describe a restaurant.

“The overall theme of the hotel is urban lodge and the grille experience blended directly into this; were an urban room. We selected our materials to express this situation – rough welded zinc bar, simple no-nonsense mirrors, hanging glass lights, fair faced brick work, industrial open ceilings, exposed duct work and air conditioning, black ash and dark timber furniture with mustard and tan leather seats. We also expressed the surrounding area, its history and now contemporary renaissance. We exploited the wealth of history of the leather and garment industry and juxtaposed this with the cool, trendy and urban progressive feel of Hoxton today. Furniture was selected to achieve this mood – leather clad Louis XIV chairs that harkened to the past and the French immigrant workers, the buffalo chair by Matthew Hilton and Chair One by Konstantin Grcic to express the contemporary character.

“To illustrate this further we worked with Ben Allen, the artist, to produce commissioned pieces and a gallery space, bringing the urban art of the area to the interior. To make this work for us we used the style of progressive art with a nature subject matter of trees, birds and butterflies. This theme was applied to customised lights and to a large lighting feature of an abstract floating lily pond.”

Studio 48 developed the concept and the name, designing the interiors for the restaurant and hotel lobby.