Restaurant and wine shop Red pif

When we were approached with the offer to design this interior, I questioned whether to accept the project at all. Should we even deal with it when I don't understand the atmosphere of cool restaurants? When I am bothered by their superficial visuality, when I don't comprehend the purpose of furnishing them with items from the latest design collections as a means to achieve authenticity - that is certainly not uniqueness!
I communicated these doubts, including (in my opinion) poor examples in the mentioned spirit, to the client during our very first meeting. We were looking at photographs of bars and small wine shops in France that he brought along. He claimed (although it somewhat contradicted the thesis on modern restaurants) that they served as an inspirational source. They were all spontaneously furnished spaces with an atmosphere shaped by the place and the years their owners have operated them. I pointed out that this can only be achieved by life. However - life in France. And that this cannot be designed, because it would be something like artificial flavoring - would he himself drink artificially flavored wines?
I don't actually know who used the term first, but it became the starting point for all further considerations - we agreed that we would not artificially flavor the interior either. That would contradict the character of the natural wines that should be sold in the wine shop.

With these wines, you have to find your way - only then can you truly enjoy them. We think of the interior of such a focused restaurant in the same way - we dedicated the most effort to ensuring that our work is not immediately visible. Our interior is meant to be a background that allows you to enjoy good wine and food here and now. It is characterized by craft-processed materials related to winemaking - oak wood for the floor and bar counter, and rebar (used in vineyards as supports for grapevines) for the shelves for bottles. As the shelves gradually fill up with bottles, they visually disappear and transform into a wall made of the bottles themselves.
The simple clearing of the ground floor spaces in the 19th-century house from disturbing modifications revealed their authentic quality. After removing impersonal cold coatings from the walls, the history of the house emerged - remnants of original paintings and plasters intertwine with scars from construction modifications. It is an experience to touch them, to see their graphic quality. Everything is complemented by the painting Martina Chloupa Vineyard.
The existing display cases provide a connection to the outside, which is important for a restaurant in the city center. However, for evening tastings or private celebrations, we proposed the option of visual shielding with rotating screens, whose composition is a free transcription of how wine bottles are stored in cartons. They allow the windows to be completely closed. The visitor then finds themselves in a sort of wine cellar, separated from the reality of the city. This moment is enhanced by indirect lighting and dimmed bare light bulbs – the only visible lighting fixtures. The display does not become a blind spot but transforms into a large logo of the establishment.