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Serving With
Style
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 4th 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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