Hospitality Design - August 2012 - 60

perspectives
Demi Monde, New York

trends: bar design

New York-based Warren Red heeded the Financial District’s call for a stylish cocktail bar with Demi Monde, a sprawling venue broken into small, intimate spaces, each with its own character. Consider ﬁnished red millwork panels along the South, or the bar itself, a Nordic black brushed granite beauty with brass trim. “There should be an element of mischief coming through,” says managing partner Dieter Cartwright, and there is no better example than artist Midori’s 3,500 feet of rope screens employing traditional Japanese bondage techniques. Photo by Vanina Moreillon the backbar’s bottle display extending along the East wall, the spray-

BAR, Lausanne, Switzerland
Bar Anglais, recalls Stuart Wilsdon of London-based Wilsdon Design Associates, was quite traditional, with mahogany paneling and overstuffed chairs. “It was tired looking and conventional and didn’t have the gravitas it needed.” Housed in what was once the Beau-Rivage Palace hotel’s original lobby, Wilsdon’s new BAR, a collaboration with the Gorgeous Group, pays tribute to the luminaries who frequented the property in bygone days with glamorous wingback chairs, herringbone ﬂoors, and an onyx bar. Wilsdon was, of course, sensitive to the hotel’s past, and rather than a complete transition into modernity, intertwined the old and the new. For instance, a digital image of one of the hotel’s rare handwoven tapestries is printed onto transparent ﬁlm and laminated onto the mirror above the back bar; it faces

Photo courtesy of Demi Monde

Marble was chosen for the steps, Cartwright says, “to contrast with the diagonal-pattern black stained solid wood ﬂoor, partly to aid navigation after a couple of cocktails. When you consider the handdrawn, street art quality of the graphic identity, combined with the polish of the brass and lacquer, or the rope installation in contrast to the millwork panels, you will identify a pleasing union of the high-end with the rough-hewn.”

one of the hotel’s original tapestries hanging on the opposite wall. A bespoke martini trolley, ﬁnished in Carrera marble, timber, and bronze, also speaks to the well-heeled clientele. “Preparing martinis in a theatrical manner at the table adds luster and sparkle,” says Wilsdon. “You have to seduce your guests, really.”

Juvia, Miami
When Venezuelan husband-and-wife team Jonas and Alexandra Millan (of Bonito restaurant in St. Barth) opened Juvia, their indoor-outdoor penthouse shrine to French, Japanese, and Peruvian cooking on Lincoln Road, they wanted to establish an ambiance unique to Miami’s dining and drinking scene. Caracas-based Alejandro Barrios, principal of Alejandro Barrios Carrero, worked hand-in-hand with the duo, and they became intrigued by the idea of precious stones hiding inside caves in the Amazon jungle. “We wanted something that really came alive and was also sort of Photo courtesy of Juvia mysterious,” Barrios explains. The bar, made of white and gray washed oak planks, conjures the beach but the bartop, highlighted by amethyst crystal stone—Juvia’s signature color is purple—is “illuminated from the inside to bring a magical and exotic feeling.”

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