Andes Steakhouse

Industrial chic – that is the concept behind the design of one of our latest projects for the hospitality sector, Andes Steakhouse Restaurant in Trade Center, in Dubai.

What the client ordered was: a brilliant balance between a light and airy daytime venue and a moody nighttime spot. One of our favorite parts about designing Andes was working alongside the owners who had a serious passion to open this restaurant, impeccable taste and a great vision for the space. They wanted it to be cozy, loud and humming but not over crumped with a serious focus on a quality theatrical food experience. They envisioned offering a quality dining experience with a contemporary take on Chilean and Argentinian cuisine through an open-display kitchen.

Taking into consideration the intricacy of the design, the budget was substantially a challenge that we managed to overcome to create a memorable and sophisticated space that people would talk about. Physically, the design we came up with was a real test due to all the physical restraints of wood and metal.

You could say that the final look of the shop front, as well as the ambiance requirements of the clients, are the great example that we passed the test. We managed to create that intriguing levels of visibility and noise between the kitchen and the rest of the space that would allow the visitors to be on the backstage while still having some privacy. In addition to that, we managed to turn the shop front into a masterpiece by using metal piping instead of wood and suspending the metal shelving from a very high ceiling to create a very detailed and impressive look.

Being transferred into a slightly closed off area towards your table, you can still hear people walking outside and, at the same time, get a glimpse of what’s going on in the kitchen. The feel that surrounds you is visibly industrial but very eclectic.

While waiting to be served, you will witness that industrial look brought with dark metal framing but also notice a more elegant ambiance that was created by white marbles. The two contrasting looks merge harmoniously as a result of combining light metals, such as bronze and copper, with light textured concrete surfaces and a little bit of wood.

It was a real challenge and pleasure translating our design capabilities into a South American fine dining experience, suitable for day and night, located in Dubai’s business hub. Go ahead and visit Andes; we can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this space!

Since the opening of their offices coincided with the launch of their brand, we aimed at tailoring the space to turn it into a unique representation of their brand personality. The brief we got from the client, who seemed to be very inspired by the Channel offices, included the words clean, elegant, monochrome and film. We translated this into a bold and contrasting monochrome pallet mixed with their gold and blue branding colors. To embrace the film studio feel, we used stage rigging and adopted the “W” from Wardah in the glazing, lighting, and shelving of the space.

An entire inter tenancy wall, that we were not permitted to remove, was the first and biggest obstacle we faced with Wardah. Splitting the space between the client-facing zone and the staff zone was a design challenge we managed to turn around. The limited budget has definitely not limited our creativity for this space.

 

Photo credits: Bahr Al-Alum Karim