Brutalist yet homely, that’s just how interior design studio Fiona Lynch Office envisioned St Ali & The Queen, a newly opened hospitality concept within the Munro Site community hub, part of Melbourne’s revitalised Queen Victoria Market. This all-day local providore and café – also a cocktail bar by night – is the result of the collaboration between artisanal coffee roaster St Ali and award-winning mixologist Orlando Marzo.
St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office
Many storied cultural influences envelop St Ali & The Queen – the market and food hall’s heritage and vibrant sense of community, Melbourne’s modern edge and passionate coffee culture, the feeling of warm European hospitality and the client’s Italian roots among them. Taking a cue from these, the space features an inviting deli, a coffee window for takeaways, a sociable counter bar, relaxed café seating indoors, and tables spilling outside to the pavement.
The design elements that make up the space, which embrace flow for staff and diverse guest encounters, consist primarily of polished raw materials and detailed joinery. ‘We wanted to embrace the traditional food hall’s classic design language of box aluminium stalls and channel its raw, brutalist feel into our design while also creating a space that cultivates the spirit and warmth of European hospitality,’ shares Fiona Lynch.
Complementing the interior’s soaring arched industrial windows and exposed concrete floors by Six Degrees Architects are raw wood, stone and brass. The furniture was custom-designed by Lynch and crafted by Geelong-based Ross Thompson using sustainable Oregon timber, as seen across the face of the bar and for high-top tables, sofas, bar stools and portable low stools.
This tactility and inviting sense of community are further carried out throughout the open plan via European-style leather-upholstered benches overlooking the market and the feature lighting, such as the counter lamps designed by Fiona Lynch and made by Melbourne’s Volker Haug, and a wall lamp by Milanese architect Paolo Rizzatto for Flos.
Italian marble and blocks of travertine and Afrodite stone on the counter, along with honeyed wood shades, add sophistication to the bar and help transition the space from a modern coffee shop by day to a sleek neighbourhood bar by night.
-
Immerse yourself in Helen Chadwick’s short and subversive careerChadwick paved the way for the Young British Artists who followed her, challenging stereotypes and the accepted portrayal of the female body, as explored in a new retrospective at Hepworth Wakefield
-
‘Welcome to my room!’ Ramdane Touhami opens the doors to his new concept store in TokyoWords, Sounds, Colors and Shapes has a first outpost in Japan, following the opening of the creative director’s Paris flagship store last year
-
‘The White Lotus’ meets La Dolce Vita: inside Mytheresa and Dolce & Gabbana’s Taormina takeoverWallpaper* travels to Taormina, Sicily, where a two-day celebration of the latest Dolce & Gabbana x Mytheresa collaboration centred around San Domenico Palace, A Four Seasons Hotel – the filming location of ‘The White Lotus’ season two
-
Wallpaper* checks in at The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter: ‘a lush restaurant with rooms’In Sydney’s Paddington, chef Josh Niland opens the 14-bedroom luxury hotel alongside his pioneering restaurant
-
Book a brutalist one-room wonder Down Under, the Vipp Tunnel in TasmaniaThe Danish design brand's bookable showcases arrive in the southern hemisphere, thanks to the vision of Tasmanian architectural firm Room 11
-
Wallpaper* checks in at The Eve Hotel Sydney: a lush urban escapeA new Sydney hotel makes a bold and biophilic addition to a buzzing neighbourhood that’s on the up
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Lo Scoglio: an Australian vacation rental with regenerative principlesTucked away in Byron Bay’s hinterland, an Italian-style farmhouse presents a sustainable approach to luxury
-
Five influential women hoteliers reflect on the changing face of hospitalityAs women continue to gain ground in the hotel sector, despite still being underrepresented in senior positions, five female moguls share their experiences of the past and projections for the future
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Melbourne Place: ‘an alchemy of colour, texture and personality’Designed by Kennedy Nolan, Melbourne Place is the Australian city’s newest independent hotel, oozing creativity and urban energy
-
All aboard the world’s most luxurious train journeysStay on track with our pick of the most luxurious train journeys around the world, whether in 1920s-style opulence or contemporary chic
-
Six hotels where you’ll find the winter sun this FebruaryFrom intimate seaside inns to lush tropical resorts, here are six Wallpaper*-approved winter sun escapes
