Melbourne has scooped the pool in the annual Eat Drink Design Awards, which celebrate the most visually remarkable hospitality venues in Australia.
Di Stasio Carlton took out the major gong for Best Restaurant Design. Crafted by local studio Hassell, the jury was wowed by the flow between indoors and the courtyard and a flawless weaving of "very old, rather old and brashly new" features, such as the juxtaposition of "striking contemporary Australian art with a seventeenth-century Italian fountain".
The immersive, timbered Music Room at HER bar in the city was awarded Best Bar Design for its Dion Hall fitout.
Rocco's Bologna Discoteca won Best Identity Design for its cheeky retro graphic treatment by Congrats Agency.
Two southside retail stores shared the award for Best Retail Design: Baker Bleu's Hawksburn store by IF Architecture and Studio Esteta's imagining of Pronto by Via Porta were lauded for their "sleek utility and sense of heritage and engagement with the neighbourhood".
This year's jury members were chef Shannon Bennett, March studio's Rodney Eggleston, food writer Melissa Leong, interior designer Fiona Lynch, and Cassie Hansen, editor of Artichoke magazine, part of the Architecture Media stable which runs the awards.
Overall the jury felt hospitality design is leaning towards singular and strong ideas, with nostalgia and familiarity presented in original forms, along with a sense of lightness and fun. "Taken overall, the jury can report a thriving Australian design community…innovative and creative," it said in a statement.
The Awards add an iconic venue to the Hall of Fame each year. This year the inductee is Pellegrini's Espresso Bar, which opened in 1954, and whose post-war neon-lit Smith, Tracey, Lyon and Brock design has barely been touched - with current custodian David Malaspina assuring the jury that renovation is off the table.
"This is a well-overdue accolade to the adored espresso bar which has endured the decades and continues to delight," said the jury. "It means something to the generations of diners who come again and again, because they love what they find there, knowing that it never changes."
See the full list of winners at eat-drink-design.com.
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