Design Week - June 5th, 2003

Shish, the second restaurant in a growing chain owned by On Fire Restaurants, is due to open in June. Two years on from the first venue in Willesden, North London, which was designed in part by Farraday Pollard, the new branch will be serving a rather trendier crowd in Hoxton. With a wide-reaching cuisine on offer (simply defined as ‘silk route’, it encompasses central Asian, Mediterranean, North African and Middle Eastern food) ethnic themeing has been wisely rejected in favour of a straightforward, urban response.

Designed by Stiff + Trevillion, director Mike Stiff explains, ‘Our approach was simply to develop the original interior and move it on. There is obviously a link to the first one, but this will feel different – it is certainly not a roll out’. The changes implemented are subtle and mostly address operational needs from an architectural, space-planning perspective. ‘At times it could be a frustrating process, because the start-point was a prototype that we didn’t design’, admits Stiff. ‘It was sometimes difficult to introduce significant moves away from that. The bar has been rationalised at the Old Street venue to form a simple curve, and the bread oven and open grill are more centre stage for maximum drama.

The quality of the detailing and the specification of materials (terrazzo, concrete and palm wood) have been carefully modified from the first restaurant, with a robust, durable finish in mind. But tough does not have to mean crude, and fine fabric sails are suspended across the ceiling, acting as light diffusers and acoustic baffles, they also partly conceal the ventilation system, which was left exposed in the Willesden branch. With a fully glazed facia, the finished result will be highly visible from outside. ‘The restaurant will read as almost an extension of the street: after all, kebabs are street food,’ explains Stiff.