Winning this year’s prize for Most Ornate Air Conditioning Pipes (Small-to Medium-sized Restaurant) by some way is Biribildu Souvlaki in Alimos, Athens; often a feature of urban industrial interiors, here at the hands of designer Minas Kosmidis they have been prettied up with traditional, ornate blue and white tile patterns. Down at eye-level Kosmidis, the creative force behind We Heart favourites RE Café Bar and Fabrica Creation, employs a different kind of traditional colour scheme – the yellow and red of a fairground or circus.
If you hadn’t got the colour reference, the wooden carousel horses would have led you there eventually, as would the rows of old-fashioned bulbs lighting the signs outside. Other prominent circus features are the wall of death installation, a tiger cage above the counter, a series of classic graphics painted on the walls and Big Top light shades. The circle is an important shape at Biribildu; as well as cropping up a lot in circus motifs, souvlaki and gyros fast food is associated with the round pita bread it’s often served with. The cage bars and carousel shafts play on the metal skewers on which the meat is cooked. I suddenly have a bad need for a kebab.
Photography, Studiovd, N.vavdinoudis – Ch.Dimitriou
