project
smokestak
collaboration with Red Deer Architects

LOCATION
Shoreditch, London

CLIENT
David Carter,
DCCO Restaurant CollectivE

COMPLETED
2013

Going into the belly of the beast for a London barbecue restaurant.

SMOKESTAK is a rammed, dark, dirty, dramatic belter of an East London restaurant. It marked the beginning of our journey with our most driven and brilliant hospitality client, David Carter, and our last industrial style fit-out.

SMOKESTAK began as a food truck in Dalston Yards, and after a wildly successful start, it was ready to make its move to a brick-and-mortar forever home in Shoreditch. We were tasked with matching the brand’s big, bold, rebellious, smoky personality with the architecture and interior – to literally bring the charred, fire-worn insides of a hard-working smoker into the heart of the restaurant. We went all in: black-on-black-on-black with hints of fire and smoke. We “washed” the concrete walls with ash, formed a heavily textured brutalist concrete backdrop for the impressive bespoke grills, and surrounded the giant black smoker with workshop-style sharing tables. We added warehouse glazing, scratched and smoked up the glass façade, then added a huge, studded, heavy metal entrance door. We worked with our long-time friend, Charlie Borrow, who stitched, nailed, and bent heavy saddle leather across chairs, tables and waiter stations.

It’s heavy, it’s hot, and it has soul. More than ten years on, its aesthetic still feels unique, immersive and exciting, and has worn into its steel-and-leather skin better than we could have hoped.