Serving With Style

The Jakarta Post   |  Sat, 12/22/2007 6:30 PM  |  Art

Three hundred years ago, when Antoine Beauvilliers came up with the idea of an eating establishment where customers could enjoy a gastronomic experience at individual tables and with single portions, it was all about the food. Today, it’s the food plus the setting that bring in guests, writes Maggie Tiojakin.

In the last decade alone, the concept of restaurants has changed significantly. No longer satisfied with what’s served on their plates, people are now looking for the whole package: a banquet for the senses.

Kim Inglis, author of the recently published Asian Bar and Restaurant Design (Periplus Editions, 2007), highlights some of these changes in the sleek, 255-page volume that captures the elements of a modern eating establishment from various countries around Southeast Asia. Together with Masano Kawana, an interior photographer, she attempts to answer the million-dollar question: what makes a bar/restaurant hot and happening.

“There are so many books that show the designs of American or European bars and restaurants,” says Inglis, who was interviewed on the day of her book launching in Jakarta last month. “I think it’s time we show Asian designs, particularly in Southeast Asian countries.”

“For decades, most American and European designers have been looking to the East for inspiration and you can see it everywhere — Paris, New York, London. Yet there are plenty of talented people here [in Asia] who remain unknown in that part of the world.”

Most of these people and design companies are listed in her book, such as Antony Liu, Nexus Design, Imaad Rahmouni, Richard Sea, Sardjono Sani, Atelier Ikebuchi, Super Potato, etc. What really intrigued her about their designs was the approach of each designer in creating a unique and attractive atmosphere.

“Each restaurant has its own characteristics,” she comments, leafing through her book. “Whether it’s in the ornaments that they incorporate into the design, like Lara Djonggrang in Jakarta, or thematic designs, like SynBar in Bangkok.”

According to Inglis, with the rise of theme restaurants there comes a new demand for entertainment in the way a restaurateur decides to design his or her establishment, both in its aesthetical and functional aspects. Selecting the 44 bars and restaurants for the book was no easy task.

“A good and successful design is also one that works well with the customers and the people working there,” she says. “I once sat in a beautiful restaurant that had perfect colors and lighting, but then came the waiters and they were all in each other’s way. Obviously, the design doesn’t work. It’s not functional.”

For every design, there should be a purpose. The arrangement of furnishings in a public setting is never accidental and no two designers go about it the same way. Feast Village in Kuala Lumpur, for example, one of the featured establishments in the book, sports “swanky outlets and swish décor” that prioritizes open spaces to create a “buzzy, flexible and fluid” ambiance.

The Greenhouse in Bali, a multi-functional establishment, offers a “modern, linear, bright white construction” that promotes natural beauty and provides the kind of atmosphere one may find when visiting an actual greenhouse.

“I’ve been to Bali many times, so I know it quite well,” Inglis says of the resort island, the lone non-capital city surveyed. “For this book, I wanted to show independent bars and restaurants that are not part of a resort or a hotel. And there are some really great ones out there, aside from what you see [in the book], that I wish I could show.”

She shrugs. “Unfortunately, there weren’t enough pages.”

In the world of architects, interior designers and decorators, beauty is literally in the eyes of the beholder. If a certain design or texture cannot accommodate the needs of potential customers, it’s a good clue that the person in charge of the design has failed. But that doesn’t mean one cannot be daring in creating a masterpiece, even if it comes at a great price.

“I do think it’s important to be daring,” says Inglis. “Some of the places I visited are quite audacious. And, at some point, I wondered, ‘Where did this or that come from?’ But, on the other hand, you don’t have to love a design to appreciate it. Personally, I’d take my hat off to them.”

A Singapore-based British native who has previously published Cool Hotels and Asian Style Hotels, she is hardly a novice in the field. She was the editor on Dorling Kindersley’s Eyewitness guidebook series in London — the equivalent of a Lonely Planet guide, but with more graphics and colors. For the last several years, she has served as co-writer as well as editor on numerous architecture, design and style books.

Asked about the particular things she looks out for in a given design, she turns away for a brief second before answering: “I suppose, everything. There is no standard formula about what makes a great-looking design; you know it when you see it. You may not always agree with it, but when you go into a certain place you can almost always sense the atmosphere it’s trying to create.”

What about the process of choosing the right color palette?

“Brown is very popular in bars and restaurants because it’s an earth-tone,” she says. “But I don’t think there’s any limitation to what color you can or cannot use in design. Even when compiling the materials for this book, I wanted a variety of colors—as you can see.”

Nevertheless, interior design is anything but a simple undertaking. While other designers (fashion, graphic, product) are occupied with creating masterpieces that best mirror their desires, interior designers must create wonders that turn their clients’ dreams into reality. Though there’s plenty of room for artistic endeavors, the word which best describes the interior design profession is service.

Service of this type usually involves long hours and groundbreaking vision, with the final result a timeless effect. The good thing is, due to the scope of the work, what’s trendy today will most likely stay trendy tomorrow.

“The trends in bar and restaurant design don’t change the way they do in fashion design,” says Inglis. “Look at Burgundy [the cocktail bar/restaurant located on the 4^th floor of Grand Hyatt Jakarta]. It looks just as modern today as it did a decade ago.”

After conversing about the varying combinations of lighting, texture and color for almost an hour, Inglis eventually narrows the main points of what makes a bar and restaurant “hot” and “happening” down to one phrase: “It has to attract customers and make them come back again and again.”

Which means …

“It has to be comfortable, accommodating and serve good food,” she says with a smile. At the end of the day, a restaurant is a restaurant —no matter how beautiful or extravagant the design may be. After all, what’s a banquet without good food?

Jakarta Picks
Burgundy
C’s
Cilantro
Dragonfly
The Edge
Lara Djonggrang & La Bihzad Bar
The Nine Muses Club
XLounge, Charcoal, Vertigo

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