We’re off to Carlton’s newest cafe and eatery designed by Biasol, inspired by Wes Anderson’s Academy Award-winning film, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Following the success of Their Budapest Cafe in Chengdu, China, Biasol have challenged the inner-city Melbourne cafe stereotype with their most recent project. Lifting cues from the imaginative set design of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Biasol have brought Wes Anderson’s renowned whimsical sets to life, in harmony with the studio’s contemporary, refined approach to design.
The cafe features the RBW Crisp Sconce and upholstered banquette seating from Warwick Fabrics.
Located at the top end of Swanston Street in Carlton, Melbourne, The Budapest Cafe is Biasol’s newest project, sharing its name with a hospitality venue of the same name in China completed in 2017. Biasol founder and director Jean-Pierre Biasol explains the concept behind The Budapest Cafe in Melbourne was to design a mesmeric, cinematic atmosphere that engages customers with the design. “We drew on our appetite for modern abstract art, design and hospitality to create an immersive gallery-like experience through an exploration of form, function and colour,” Jean-Pierre says.
The recognisable bubble-gum pink facade of The Grand Budapest Hotel informed the monotone interior palette; slightly more subdued to stay in line with Melbourne’s urban design aesthetic. A grand archway crowns the ordering area, where the kitchen is cleverly concealed behind a pink door with a playful round window.
Shallow sweeping arches and mock staircases further emphasise the notion of being on a Hollywood movie set, encouraging customers to interact and share images of the idiosyncratic space. Pink tubular forms in the banquette seating and around the counter nod to the prevalent curves in the film, paired with contemporary pieces and streamlined white tables.
“Having studied Wes Anderson’s style for The Budapest Cafe in Chengdu, China, we evolved the design experience for the new Melbourne cafe, with a natural, earthy colour palette for the local design sensibility.”
– Biasol founder and director Jean-Pierre Biasol
Shallow sweeping arches and mock staircases are reminiscent of a Hollywood movie set, encouraging customers to interact and share images of the idiosyncratic space.
The cafe serves up a fresh breakfast and lunch menu of Asian and Italian-inspired cuisine, fusing Jean-Pierre Biasol’s Italian heritage with the cafe’s sister location in China. For an eccentric hospitality experience unlike anything else in Melbourne, The Budapest Cafe is one to visit this year.
