The Waning Days of Summer

Only 37 days left until the first day of Autumn.

Mr. Simon - Botanico Alchimista

Italian interior and retail design company Visual Display helped to create a magical hidden cocktail bar in the city of Udine in northeastern Italy. Called Mr. Simon - Botanico Alchimista, the invitation-only bar is in a secret location, behind a restaurant and accessed through its bathroom and broom closet. After receiving the invitation, one is given the address and access code (which changes daily). One must find the restaurant and enter the access code into a white vintage telephone on a wall. Once approved, one slips through a secret door in the aforementioned bathroom and broom closet, where one must ring the bell on a door in a cement wall. And that is how to enter the exclusive 25-seat, 540 sq.ft. cocktail lounge that is the dark and dramatic home of one fictitious Mr. Simon, an esteemed botanical alchemist who has traveled the world collecting curiosities, tinctures and recipes for his sizable menu of artisanal cocktails. I love that the entrance vestibule is papered in Piero Fornasetti's cloud wallcovering. And the sparkling bathroom covered in beveled mirror subway tiles is spectacular.

http://www.visualdisplay.it/en

Foxglove Lounge-Bar

Hong Kong-based NC Design & Architecture Ltd. (NCDA) have created a marvelous new project. Their mission statement says that they strive to develop creative projects that reinvent the experience of space through meaningful connections, focusing on engaging through storytelling. And this project hits that mark beautifully. Their website describes the space perfectly:

"Hong Kong’s most compelling new lounge-bar, opened in November 2015 paying homage to quintessential British heritage: the finest handcrafted umbrellas and the traditional private members’ club.

Access to the 4,300 square feet space – a fantasy world inspired by the globe-trotting adventures of an English gentleman and named after his love’s favourite (but potentially deadly) flower – is via a ‘secret’ door in the Fox Shop, an elegant walk-through boutique featuring classic silver handle-umbrellas immaculately presented ‘Kingsman-secret-service-style’ within bespoke-design brass edged wall cabinets.

Touch one ‘special’ meticulously carved silver handle to enter Foxglove’s exclusive inner sanctum reminiscent of all the luxury and glamour of first class airplanes, trains and vintage cars – with a distinctly contemporary and playful twist that highlights the age-old pleasure in discovering hidden elements in special places.

The unapologetically cinematic interiors draw on a moody palette of darker finishes, shadows, form and rich materials to give the space – part retreat, part escape – an aptly masculine allure.

The main lounge and cocktail bar featuring an elegant silver-grey marble top counter sits at the heart of the space, hinting at their covert nature with luxurious deep ink blue leather seating for 80 guests offset by a dramatically sculptural cream lacquered ceiling that wraps around the bar.

Meanwhile, a VIP room featuring blood red sumptuous seating for 32 guests evokes the ambience of a vintage First Class train cabin with a gently arched ceiling and walls clad with umbrella stems. Custom lights reminiscent of classic car headlamps add to the cinematic experience.

The sense of fantasy continues with a witty nod to ship-cabin-style washrooms accessed by a corridor where mesmerizing mirror trickery turns up the glamour dial."

http://foxglovehk.com/
https://www.facebook.com/foxglovehk/
http://www.ncda.biz/projects/1951/foxglove-hk

How's your summer going?