Oscar season in F&B world

The Restaurant & Bar Design Awards 2017 arrives at King’s Cross

The annual Restaurant & Bar Design Awards are always a calendar highlight. After all, it’s not every day that hundreds of the world’s best dining venues, watering holes, clubs and cafés are put before a global panel of design, fashion and food experts to determine the most game-changing spacemakers in contemporary hospitality. For the world’s restaurateurs, bar owners, publicans, café keepers and the architects and designers they work with, October 5th is the most important date in the diary. For everyone else, it’s a chance to celebrate some of the most innovative design thinking on the contemporary bar and restaurant scene.

We’re thrilled to be invited to be the awards’ music partner in any case, but the theme of this year’s event, the awards’ ninth edition, is particularly close to our hearts.

After last year’s time-hopping ‘Street’-themed edition, #RBDA2017 has chosen to explore the concept of ‘Soundscape’ for the awards. Three of the most accomplished restaurant and bar designers have each been invited to create a dedicated installation exploring the intersection of sound and vision in F&B spaces. SHH are creating a project entitled #Soundbites; Design Command are working on #Ticktockblock; and Haptic Architects are creating what they’ve intriguingly titled #Absence. The three studios’ #RBDAsoundscape designs will be unveiled at the event in Granary Square, King’s Cross on 5 October along with unique sound designs from Jimmy Drew Sound Design.

Almost 1,000 venues entered the awards this year, and the nominee shortlist is now down to a still-extensive 236 F&B outlets of every style and budget, ranging from Wallpaper Bar* to Nando’s, and including contenders from Knutsford to Kolkatta. You’ll find the full list on the awards website.

Photo by Richard Lewisohn & London Interiors Photographer