The Owl Cocktail House

Authors’ Comment

Initially, the place hosted evenings for cocktail lovers nearby The Romanian Athenaeum, in Bucharest. In the meantime, it moved to a much more generous space (Știrbei Vodă 104-106) which allowed the interior design theme to be preserved and nuanced. The Owl Cocktail House (2), because we are talking about it, has therefore found a new urban "hollow", where those passionate about uniquely combined liquors can develop various mixological passions.
The space came with a real challenge from the interior design’s perspective: being glazed on three out of four sides, it had to be impregnated not only with the sensation of the woods hollow, but also with that feeling of intimacy and going back in time experienced when one sits at the bar waiting for a cocktail. The solution came on the chromatic-textures axis but also thanks to the multitude of plants placed in the bar. This is how the dark tones appeared on the furniture (made entirely out of metal, except for the tables and chairs made out of solid wood painted black) or on the floor treated with light gray and black epoxy paint (in the bar area). The dark shades were complemented by natural materials such as stone (slate), ceramic or wood that outline the bar: the solid wood top with brass insertions is complemented by the cylinder motif appearing in the form of the texture of the front bar or in that of the halves hovering over the bar. The organic forms can be also seen on the ceiling’s level, which, painted in dark green, contributed to blur the industrial spirit of the space; round elements that alternate mirrors and lights were placed under the pipes covering the ceiling. In this intimate setting, the bar, on whose background shelves the key pieces of this alchemical laboratory, - the bottles, - are being displayed, becomes the pretext for dialogue while waiting for a custom-made cocktail. Regardless of whether she/he will sit at the bar or choose one of the tables, the viewer will enjoy from any point of the space the looks of the main character – the urban, bright moon, located on the opposite side of the entrance, reflected in the ceiling’s mirrors, and becoming a beacon for the nocturnal traveler arriving at The Owl. The bathrooms are chromatically different from the rest of the bar and have a different look on the men's/women's axis. In one of them the black/gray slate found its place on the walls, and in the other one there are scales of black slate, normally used as tiles for rooftops. The common points where the bathrooms and the bar’s spirit meet are the feeling of nature and the decorative element on the wall opposite the sink mirror that evokes the moon, through shape, light and the game of reflection. The mirrors create the feeling of a labyrinth in which you can get lost indefinitely. At The Owl the design is not afraid to dare displaying a setting where the urban owl befriends the biggest moon over a glass of Negroni. An interior design that unfolds subtly and elegantly to open up the cocktail scene.