Hasta La Ideas

Cuisine meets design in a Finnish concept restaurant during Stockholm Design Week

On 7th February Stockholm welcomes design lovers as the annual Stockholm Design Week kicks off again. Timed to run alongside the Furniture & Light Fair, Finnish concept restaurant Hel Yes! will set up a special space on Skeppsholmen Island in the center of Stockholm.

Hel Yes! first entered the design fray during the 2010 London Design Week, hailed as one of the highlights of the festival itself as it tied together the disciplines of food and design with a sophisticated site-specific installation.

With Helsinki having been named Design Capital of the World in 2011, Hel Yes! gets another chance to shine as creative founders, restauranter Antto Melasniemi, artist Klaus Haapaniemi and designer Mia Wallenius bring their diverse skills to the new location.

London’s Hel Yes! was focused mainly on food and design, but Stockholm’s concept looks more toward the social aspects of gathering to eat, played out against neo-paganistic iconography devised by Haapaniemi, whose graphic forms of fauna and far-off galaxies will fill the 100-square-meter space. “Everybody on the team is interested in mysticism and Finnish pagan aesthetics,” explains Wallenius. “The textiles create a vast architectonic element and are part of creating a unique cosmos.”

In the months leading up to the opening, the founders worked with Finnish choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström and his dancers at Helsinki Dance Company to incorporate key elements of interaction and movement to the latest iteration of Hel Yes! More than just dance, the heightened sensory experience builds sections of choreography into the cooking and preparation of the food. “There’s no distinction between the dancers and the waiters. We’re trying to create a logical entirety with the audience being a part of it—more of an event than a performance,” explains Melasniemi. According to the chef, it’s about more than just food. “I’m not so much of a technician but have found myself getting more and more into the whole experience and concept of the dining ritual,” he says, explaining that when he eats out, he spends more time looking at the movement of the waiters, the sommelier’s delivery or the angles of tables and chairs.

As with the last Hel Yes! close attention to detail guides every aspect of the experience, from the special waitstaff uniform to the beer and vodka selection. Even the tablewear is drawn together from swap meets, in which residents from the Mylittala community are asked to hand over their old pieces from legendary Finnish brand Iittala and share the memories attached to each piece, in exhange for a free dinner. More advanced choreography fills the venue throughout the evening, including the introduction of an orchestra with a section of instruments crafted from whale bone. As for the food itself it’s likely to be a true showcase of Finnish cuisine and ingredients by chef whose vision goes beyond the food itself and transcends into a spectacularly memorable dining experience.

Hel Yes!

7-11 February 2012

Eric Ericsonhallen, Kyrkslingan 2

111 49 Stockholm, SE

Diners can climb into wooden booths modelled on railway carriages in the second Fabbrica pizzeria completed by Dutch design studio Tjep.

Located in the coastal village of Bergen, the restaurant repeats the most successful features from the earlier Rotterdam restaurant, including its mosaic-patterned pizza oven.

The wooden seating booths line one wall of the Bergen dining room, featuring suspended tabletops and chandeliers.

Wood for the oven is stored on a wall of criss-crossing shelves, where electrical socket clusters are mounted on large red squares.

You can compare this restaurant to its predecessor by following this link to our earlier story, or see all our stories about Tjep. here.

Photography is by Yannic Alidarso.

Here’s some more explanation from Frank Tjepkema:

After the success of Fabbrica Rotterdam (completed in 2005) we were asked to design a second Fabbrica in the famous costal artist village of Bergen in The Netherlands.

We revisited several of the original elements, for example the train cabins with a new look and feel, we like the concept for it’s intimacy and romanticism for there is nothing more relaxing and engaging then enjoying a nice dinner on a train while looking at nice landscapes.

This installation is lifted from the ground and suggests travel and movement.

The large Pizza Oven covered with Bisazza tiles is an absolute eye-catcher and the very industrial wood containers hold all the wood to fuel the oven and all the electricity to fuel the lights!

As for the general looks we decided to take a more earthly and less gloss and shine approach as compared to Fabbrica Rotterdam.

In Bergen we show materials instead of using painted surfaces.

We did this to be more in touch with the economic context of the moment.

It’s not time for Bling Bling anymore, people want more authenticity and less entertainment.

A new cookbook relays life lessons learned building a Montreal restaurant

In so many ways, Joe Beef seems to fit with current restaurant trends. The team grows their own produce, sources their meat locally and buys from family vineyards, but Joe Beef is not new to the scene. If anything, it’s old hat—a study in history and a return to middle-class values in Montreal. Their cookbook (of sorts) couples recipes with legends, anecdotes with instruction, illustrating lessons learned in the creation of a restaurant. It also serves as a guide to Montreal and surrounding areas, with everything from lodging tips to itineraries to the best place to get a haircut.

David McMilland, chef and owner of Joe Beef, is everything a restauranteur should be—he’s gregarious, loquacious, a bit crass and a drinker. He knows what he likes and he’ll tell you what he doesn’t. When it came to leaving the upscale dining scene, McMilland and his partner Frédéric Morin wanted to keep it simple. “We just wanted to do a regular menu, you know. Six appetizers, six mains, interesting wines that we thought were interesting,” says McMillan. Surrounding themselves with the right objects was key. “We get off on silverware, oyster forks, Le Creuset pots, on beautiful ancient copper pots, the right banquette, an old mirror… If I wasn’t fucking running a restaurant I swear to God I’d shut it down and open an antique shop.”

McMilland doesn’t see his decision to do old French recipes as anything incongruous. Considering the the working-class neighborhood of Little Burgundy where Joe Beef is located, molecular cuisine and square plates simply weren’t an option. “We would come off as guys who don’t know what they’re doing or have no sense of time and place, no education in history. ” Instead, McMilland and Morin, both family men with a strong sense of self-awareness, set out to create a small restaurant in a plain neighborhood that served great food without pretension.

The book has recipes, sure, but the focus is on the life of the restaurant. “We wrote a book about running a restaurant, about gardening, about welding, about Montreal, other people’s restaurants, about old historic restaurants,” says McMilland. He explains that the joy of running Joe Beef lies in the fact that he can leave the din of the kitchen, go outside and plant some lettuce, or head down to the workshop to cut a cedar plank on which to serve a whole arctic char. “If you’re a fucking chef in NYC, and you run a big ass restaurant, Joe Beef is that restaurant you dream of owning.”

McMilland is a diligent student of history, constantly pulling inspiration from old Montreal as the basis for his recipes. Several of the dishes highlighted in the book are taken from Canadian dining car fare. Patrick “Joe Beef” McKiernan, the restaurant’s namesake, embodies the spirit that McMilland and Morin try to capture in their food and in the culture of their establishment. A 19th-century Irish immigrant, Joe Beef earned his monicker through his ability to find food in times of need.

The original Joe Beef’s Canteen was a roughly furnished establishment that saw its fair share rowdy patrons, sometimes referred to as “The Great House of Vulgar People.” Though Little Burgundy has for a long time been considered and up-and-coming neighborhood, the rough edges remain. As McMilland soberly relates, “We had a guy on fire in front of our restaurant three weeks ago.”

The food at Joe Beef celebrates meat, and so does the book to some extent—there’s a recipe for a sausage martini in the cocktail section—but greens are key to the restaurant’s vision. In the summer, McKiernan explains, “The appetizers are all piles of raw vegetables or roasted vegetables or vegetable salads or greens and mountains of asparagus.” If you’re eating a carrot at Joe Beef, there’s a good chance it comes from the garden out back or from McMilland’s or Morin’s personal plots.

The Art of Living According to Joe Beef is available for purchase from Amazon for $25. Tune in to see Joe Beef and other Montreal foodie havens on the upcoming episode of Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover, airing 26 December 2011.

Photography for the book by Jennifer May

Charred timber lines this Thai bistro in Kuwait City by architect Rashed Alfoudari.

Pendant lamps with copper insides hang from the ceiling of the Ubon restaurant above rows of black and white furniture.

A kitchen at the rear of the restaurant is concealed behind a mirrored wall.

We’ve only published a handful of stories from Kuwait on Dezeen, but you can see them all here, including a house that emits mist and a jewellery shop.

Photography is by AOK.

Here’s some additional text from Alfoudari:

Ubon

Ubon is a Thai bistro located in the core of kuwait city.

It overlooks Fahad Al salim street, a street well respected for it’s commerce back in the days.

The space program of this bistro requires an efficient design for all of the kitchen, storage, and toilet areas; allowing for a spacious dining area.

For this to be executed, the interior works where to be integrated with the existing structural elements in a harmonious manner.

The Burnt wood panels, infused with the golden copper elements surround the dining area portraying the asian influence of this bistro.

Pendant lights were added to soothe the dining area with their organic shape.

Adding to their relevance is the inner golden color they diffuse, a color that had great impact on thai cultural ornamentation.

Giving a visual continuity to the dining area where the wooden grains imprinted on the restroom’s concrete walls.

The contrast in color and material here is then unified by texture.

To continue the vertical pattern, the restroom was fitted with a suspended ceiling faucet along with an off-white standalone basin.

Architect: Rashed Alfoudari
Location: Salhiya, Kuwait City
Project Area: 60 sqm
Project Year: 2011

Greek architects K-studio have completed a rustic pizzeria modelled on an Italian courtyard in the centre of Athens.

Patterned tiles decorate the floor and a wall in the dining room of Capanna, which is furnished with vintage tables and chairs.

Reclaimed wooden shutters wrap around a mezzanine first floor, which projects over a wood-burning pizza oven and bar.

Ballpoint pen murals drawn by artist Joanna Burtenshaw decorate the walls of the staircase leading upstairs, where the shutters conceal the kitchen, toilets and a storage closet.

Other pizzerias from the Dezeen archive include one where diners can play their own music inside booths and another where colourful wall graphics illustrate possible topping combinations.

Photography is by Yiorgos Kordakis.

Here’s some more text from K-studio:

We send you images of our recently completed restaurant project, Capanna, a pizzeria / trattoria in Kolonaki, an area in the center of Athens.

The restaurant sits on the corner of Ploutarchou and Haritos street, where Haritos becomes pedestrianised.

When the weather is warm enough, which in Athens happens more often than not, the floor to ceiling windows can slide upwards allowing the restaurant to spill out onto the pavement.

The experience of eating outside was the starting point for the design of Capanna.

The aim was to render the space with the atmosphere of an Italian courtyard.

A pallet made up of materials familiarly found in these spaces such as cement tiles, stucco plaster, travertine stone, blackened steel railings, and characteristic narrow wooden shutters, was used to clad the different spaces in the restaurant.

The wood burning oven and the pizza bar are enclosed within a travertine stone box that sits in the far corner of the space framing the Pizzaiolo.

On top of it balances a rectangular volume, clad with reclaimed wooden shutters, enclosing the kitchen, storage and WC facilities.

The two shapes connect with a suspended steel staircase that penetrates them.

The floor is laid with grey cement tiles but in the double-height area of the restaurant geometrically patterned cement tiles create a carpet-like strip that continues onto the adjacent wall, emphasizing the height of the room.

The various vintage chairs add softness and a laid back feeling to the restaurant and the grey stucco plastered walls and ceiling help to enclose all of this in a textured, minimal envelope.

The combination of purposefully designed elements, reclaimed materials and vintage furniture, presents an architecture that sits comfortably between the bespoke and the sourced, creating an exciting and sociable atmosphere.

On the first floor mural artist Joanna Burtenshaw has illustrated the walls with biro drawings depicting the process of making fresh pasta, inspired by the traditional design of the restaurant’s tableware.