London’s Bala Baya restaurant is a “poem to Tel Aviv”
Dezeen promotion: Design studio AfroditiKrassa seemed to the streets of Tel Aviv to create the interiors of central London’s Bala Baya restaurant, which was the venue for the 2019 Dezeen Awards judges dinner.
Taking up a disused railway arch in London’s Southwark neighbourhood, Bala Baya has been designed by AfroditiKrassa to be “a poem to Tel Aviv and its numerous cultures assembly within the metropolis’s bustling avenue life”.
The 2-storey restaurant serves a seasonal menu of dishes impressed by Israeli delicacies and created by head chef and founder Eran Tibi.
On the bottom flooring is an off-the-cuff eating area that is meant to evoke the ambiance of Tel Aviv’s busy cafes, full with an enormous bespoke oven that may cook-up 1,000 pita breads per hour.
Pink and black-flecked terrazzo tiles have been laid throughout the ground, offset by a bright-white service counter that winds across the room’s rear – it is curved type mimics the form of the four,000 Bauhaus-style buildings seen in Tel Aviv’s UNESCO-listed White Metropolis.
Pale stool seats have been slotted beneath, permitting diners to see cooks at work within the open kitchen.
There’s additionally a drinks bar devoted to serving distinctive blends of gazoz – a soda-like beverage made out of fruit, syrup and carbonated water that has change into well-liked within the Israeli capital over a number of years.
A black-frame staircase leads guests as much as the primary flooring, the place there’s a extra formal 76-cover restaurant.
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Slate tables have been dotted all through, surrounded by metal-framed chairs with pale pink backrests. The color was chosen by the studio in order that the furnishings seemed barely bleached by the solar, nodding to Tel Aviv’s Meditteranean local weather.
Burgundy leather-based banquettes supply a spot for bigger teams to sit down and luxuriate in their meals.
An exposed-bulb chandelier dangles above the double-height entrance space and leafy potted crops are backlit to create “dancing shadows”.
“Because the afternoon attracts to an in depth and the sunshine of the setting solar shines via the glass-fronted restaurant, the area slowly transforms to a night setting,” defined the studio.
Bogs are positioned behind a patterned breeze-block partition that slots beneath the constructing’s vaulted ceiling.
Bala Baya is certainly one of a number of London eating places that AfroditiKrassa has designed. Again in July the studio accomplished the interiors of opulent Asian eatery Fortunate Cat, which is decked out in moody tones to emulate the aesthetic of the underground jazz cafes that appeared all through Tokyo within the 1930s.