KISMET
London
“Well-worn character, with ambience and atmosphere”
Drawing on the understated, yet highly personal character of Istanbul’s Meyhanes, Kismet features dark wood finishes against nicotine-stained paint, café curtains in traditional antique lace and a candelit glow atop white tablecloths, with mounting piles of plates as the meze is served, along with ample glasses of raki. Compact by nature, two happily crowded dining rooms are set above a working pub in Borough Market.
In collaboration with restaurateur Dom Hamdy and chef Keiran Mustafa, the design also drew on Mustafa's own Northern Cypriot Turkish heritage, and the pair’s research travelling through Northern Cyprus and Istanbul. The result is a restaurant that feels as though it has always been there: a gently worn backdrop for a night that unfolds in its own time.
DESIGN FOCUS
Interventions were hand produced to help create a layered, accumulative feel - from the custom paint colour, the hand-forged candle holders, and dying the café curtains in tea. Heavyweight linen curtains drape the doorways, with the opaline glass pendants resembling the milky white of raki, when mixed with water. Vintage dining chairs add comfort and subtle variety in their patina, and walls are lined in Mustafa family photos, mixed in with Istanbul flea- market finds from Dom and Kieran’s travels.
BUILDING CONTEXT
Kismet occupies the upper floor of The Globe Tavern, a Gothic Revival pub on Bedale Street that dates from 1872, designed by Victorian architect Henry Jarvis. Its white cornices and sandy London brick still out onto Borough Market below. The pub takes its name from Shakespeare's Globe, which was once wrongly believed to have stood here, but regardless, the name stuck.
Interior images courtesy of Jasper Fry.