Monty's Deli is a Jewish Deli located in Hoxton, East London. The 220sq.m restaurant is Monty's first permanent venue and caters for 70 covers in a range of booth seating, bar diner and satelite tables.
The design is inspired by and is a contemporary interpretation of the classic old workers cafe of London.
What was the brief?
Beyond the practical aspects of the brief (designing a functional deli/ restaurant with central back of house kitchen for an expanding operation of satelite restaurants) two key points formed the brief:
1. Our client wanted a place inspired by the classic old workers cafés of London - a restaurant typology that is now, sadly, close to extinction.
2. The design had to be a sensitive transformation of the space, sympathetic to and celebrating aspects of the historic building fabric
What were the key challenges?
1. Whilst we wanted to create a space inspired by the classic workers cafe we were wary of creating a facsimile copy. The challenge was to deliver a place that had the feel and elements of the look but not too close a resemblance. This had to be a contemporary interpretation of an old classic.
2. In transforming the space we set out to expose and celebrate the existing building fabric. The challenge was that much of the historic fabric had been covered over during many years of more recent occupation. The last tenant, a bakery, had been in occupation for over 40 years, during which time they boarded and plastered over walls, installed vinyl over original floors. During our initial site visits we glimpsed promising fragments of historic (Victorian era) building fabric; plastered over original wall tiles, exposed porcelain floor tiles and other partially hidden delights. All these elements, integrated into the design, had the potential to add layers and enrich. The challenge was twofold:
A) How to integrate these into the design when they are largely concealed. Known unkowns.
AND
B) Preserving aspects of historic building fabric without this becoming a conservation project. The challenge was to find the right balance between new elements and old, retained ones. So that each played off each other to greater effect.
Who are the clients and what's interesting about them?
The client, two partners, were not professional restaurauters. This venue was to be their first permanent one. In the preceding 3 years they had a 2 day a week offering at Maltby St market, a foodie market in South London, where they built a cult following for their artisan salt beef and pastrami sandwhiches.
They are both musicians who, before Monty's, played in bands and, to an extent some of the seed funding for this project came from music royalties.
Both us and the client, with limited experience in the restaurant sector, approached this job with a large dose of naivety. In many respects we see this as a good thing, allowing a fresh take on things.
What were the solutions?
1. To create the look and, more importantly, the feel of the classic London workers cafe without it becoming a replica we studied the typology. We visited some of the few remaining venues. Then we extracted some of the essentials; booth seating proportions (often quite tight and cosy), wall cladding - and we reinterpreted these.
2. To create a balance between old/ existing building fabric and new insertions we did 2 things: A) In early design stages we carried out a number of site investigations exposing small areas of walls, ceiling and floor to establish what is there that we can work with.
We carried out research into the history of the building and discovered that it was first occupied during the Victorian era by a successful chain of butchers that, at their height, had circa 40 outlets. Many of their shops had similar designs with bespoke wall and floor tiles which we found covered at this venue. This learning, coupled with our site investigations, helped us paint a clearer picture of what the space would look like once stripped out.
B) Our design of the space was guided by a simple rule; our architectural intervention in the space would be predominantly limited to a ribbon wrapping around the perimeter. The ribbon begins at roughly 35cm above finished floor level, coinciding with the underside of booth seating, and stops at 115cm above finished floor level, coinciding with the top of the booth/ datum cladding and bar. Everything above and below these levels is historic fabric.
The exposed historic building fabric tells the story of this space over time and It's juxtaposition with contemporary elements help make the end product warm, soulful and distinct.
How is the project unique?
The unique combination of uncovered historic building fabric in immediate juxtaposition with contemporary fit out elements creates a result that is very much of it’s place and cannot be found elsewhere.
This tension between old and new; at once revealing the history of the place and its next chapter, responding to local context whilst introducing the new helps make the end product warm, soulful and distinct.
