London & South East Premier Hospitality

Spielburger

Spielburger, Hampstead
Written by Roma Publications

Spielburger, Hampstead

No strangers to winning awards, Fusion Design and Architecture won a place in the Best Designed Independent Restaurant category of the Casual Dining Design Awards finals with their inspired concept for Spielburger restaurant in Hampstead.

Spielburger is located next to (and owned by) the Everyman Cinema and was created through the refurbishment of a former Greek restaurant which had been established for over 20 years, but had an interior which had become neglected and in need of updating.

The innovative design for the new interior was the brainchild of Fusion Design and Architecture’s Rick Hudson who takes up the story: “We were pleased to get into the finals of the Casual Dining Design Awards – it’s always good to receive recognition. The design brief for Spielburger was to give the venue both edge and style, but without over-doing it.

“The venue is a relatively straight forward space with facilities arranged similar to those of the previous occupier – i.e. a long thin ground floor restaurant with kitchen and bar located towards the rear and customer WCs upstairs.

“The main challenges of the project were to make the most of the tiny overall internal space, plus the requirement to keep to a tight contract programme which demanded a very quick fit out.”

The works were carried out by interior refurbishment specialist contractors NCD, who Rick commended for their work: “They did a great job against a tight contract programme, working in an old neglected space.”

Following a complete strip out, the whole of the interior was ‘stucco’ lined and a bamboo ceiling installed. “The original concept was to make the design a little slicker than the end result, but in stripping back the interior to its original raw state, it felt right to leave it that way and let the three key design features shine through. These include full wall artwork by a prolific artist known as “Swifty”, stylish comfortable banquette seating by Craftwood and a completely contrasting polished copper bar front,” said Rick.

“Spielburger is doing pretty well and the customers like it, which is the main thing. They love it for the fact it’s not over-designed. Just some nice touches,” he added.

Everyman cinema are also pleased with their new venue and commented: “Here at Everyman we have always believed in creating a truly unique and memorable cinema experience that exceeds expectations and reaches the highest standards possible in quality, comfort and entertainment.

“With Spielburger we aim to emulate this warm and friendly atmosphere, with an excellent selection of drinks, fantastic customer service and most importantly, mouthwateringly delicious burgers.

“Our burgers are served in soft brioche buns, baked daily, with baby gem lettuce, tomato, red onion and pickle.

Spielburger, Hampstead

“Our patties are a coarse ground mix of chuck and 28 day aged rib cap from pure-bred Aberdeen Angus beef, hand selected and traditionally reared on open pastures in Ayrshire. Our chips are cut daily using British Agria, the King of potatoes for chips, they fluff up like no other spud!”

Fusion Design and Architecture have won numerous awards and specialise in design for the bar and restaurant sector, and in recent years have added cinema design to their portfolio, working for a varied but constant and stable client base The main drive of the practice is to address on a very detailed level, the specific needs of a wide range of clients and deliver the best possible solution to each site.

NCD

NCD specialise in all aspects of restaurant refurbishment works for the casual dining sector, from shop fit-outs and project management through to electrical service installations. The company has been in operation since 2007 and within this time has worked with many leading names in the hospitality sector, including Prezzo, ASK and Zizzi.

At present NCD is working with Ed’s Easy Diner on its roll-out of restaurants; however, most recently NCD was involved with the fit-out and electrical installation works at Spielburger. NCD has a long-standing working relationship with Spielburger owners, Everyman having worked with them on previous projects.

NCD Managing Director, Nigel Dickens, said:

“Although Spielburger is part of the Everyman Cinema it is almost a stand-alone restaurant, so it is a very important restaurant for our client. We were very pleased to be a part of the project.”

Nigel added:

“At NCD we are proud of the quality of our work as well as our cost efficiency. We are always looking at the best ways to work within budgets and to our clients’ target dates.”

About the author

Roma Publications