Bandol
Bandol, a new restaurant on Chelsea’s Hollywood
Road, delivers the cuisine of rustic southern
France from within a stunningly warm and
contemporary environment - featuring copper,
distressed oak, steel, concrete, brick, smoked
glass and artful lighting, as well as a large central
olive tree - designed by one of London’s most
prestigious and innovative design studios,
Kinnersley Kent Design.
The team behind Bandol, married partners Sylvia
Kontek and Vittorio Monge, came to the project
fresh from the success of their Margaux wine bar/
restaurant in South Kensington.
Whilst Margaux’s main point of reference centres
on the wines of the Bordeaux area, Bandol takes
its inspiration from the food and wines of the
Provence and Riviera regions of southern France,
in the form of a sophisticated and modern menu and the perfect wine to accompany each course.
The intimate, 70-cover restaurant is made up of a
ground floor bar and dining area, with a kitchen,
customer toilets and back of house space on the
lower-ground floor. The space measures 200 sq
m over the two storeys and formerly housed the
‘Honky Tonk’ restaurant.
the World Of Hospitality
63
‘The long and fairly narrow spatial arrangement
presented us with a number of design challenges’,
commented KKD Associate Director Jenny
Andersson, ‘including how to make the best of
the available natural light and how to deal with
the acoustics, given that the adjoining property
directly to the right is residential. We additionally
had to be as clever as possible in achieving a
feeling of luxury on a relatively tight budget,
which also had to cover an entirely new kitchen.’