hospitality

Review: Tayim restaurant at the Harbour Rocks Hotel

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By Penny Craswell

On the ground floor of the Harbour Rocks Hotel, with dining overlooking busy pedestrian street Nurses Walk in Sydney’s The Rocks, is Tayim, a new restaurant, bar and deli with design by architecture studio Welsh & Major. The exterior brick facade has been restored and updated, while the interiors are a lesson in successful adaptive reuse, pairing historic sandstone walls with minimal design insertions to create a blank canvas for complex Middle Eastern flavours.

The kitchen at Tayim restaurant, Harbour Rocks Hotel by Welsh & Major. Photos: Tom Ferguson

The project was made all the more challenging by the heritage constraints to the site, which was previously the 1890s Evans’ Stores warehouse, as well as the considerable functional requirements of creating a working restaurant, bar and deli.

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Review: The Doss House Bar

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By Penny Craswell

There’s nothing quite like a whiskey bar – it conjures images of smoky rooms, timber-lined walls, leather furniture, and of course, damn fine whiskey. Sydney’s The Doss House fits this criteria (apart from the smoky air, which is probably best) and adds some more.

A fireplace at a whiskey bar – The Doss House, designed by Buck & Simple. Photo: Tom Ferguson

Design studio Buck and Simple is responsible for the interiors, which reference the building’s past as an opium den, gambling house, bootmaker and boarding house dating back to the 1840s in the historic precinct of The Rocks. Read more →

Review: Little Bonny’s chicken shop

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By Penny Craswell

A French-style interior in a chicken shop and cafe in Sydney uses layered geometries to create an inviting space for diners. Interior design studio Luchetti Krelle were appointed to bring a fresh and modern take on the classic Australian chicken shop in this suburban shopping mall in Menai in Sydney’s South.

Little Bonny's chicken shop by Luchetti Krelle. Chairs by Design by Them. Read more on The Design Writer
Little Bonny’s chicken shop by Luchetti Krelle. Chairs by Design by Them. Photo: Anson Smart

Their approach makes use of a variety of textures and colours layered to create a sense of elegance that is also calm and inviting. Concrete, terrazzo, timber and copper all feature in this interior, with bespoke lighting, joinery and upholstery adding to the character of the space. A white backdrop is given depth thanks to pale pink, navy blue, duck egg green and warm mustard yellow. Read more →

Review: Alleyway bar, Sydney

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By Penny Craswell

Alleyway is a new micro whiskey bar tucked in a laneway behind 200 George Street in the centre of Sydney. Interior designers Angela Biddle and Shehani Kumarasinghege from Scott Carver had to make use of every millimetre in a tiny space with a width of only three metres.

Alleyway, with bottle shelving made of apple crates, interiors by Scott Carver. Photo: Luc Remond

Everywhere you look in this little spot, there is an interesting detail or pattern. Recycled Tea Grey timber was used for the bar front, contrasted with Bronze Verdigris metal finish for the bar serving ledge – this will patina with time. Read more →

Review: Little Creatures Hong Kong

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By Penny Craswell

Little Creatures is the latest Hong Kong restaurant by Charlie & Rose, a Hong Kong-based creative studio led by Australian designer Ben McCarthy. The venue is the first Little Creatures outside of Australia and is situated in Kennedy Town, where the cuisines range from seafood to Italian, to Mexican-Japanese fusion, all situated within a stone’s throw of Hong Kong Harbour.

Front facade of Little Creatures Hong Kong by Charlie & Rose. More on The Design Writer blog
Front facade of Little Creatures Hong Kong by Charlie & Rose. Image: supplied

 

Previously a warehouse space, the restaurant interior retains some of the original’s industrial grunge, overlaid with blonde timber joinery, bespoke furniture and some big, decorative red pipes that run through the space. Part of the brief was to create facilities for an on-site brewery and the gleaming metal brewing equipment takes pride of place behind the bar. Read more →