Izakaya Den is a bolder, Melbourne interpretation of a traditional Japanese izakaya, a place for meeting, drinking and sampling great food. Many of the great things about Japan are in play throughout the sleek long cement and wood tunnel that has been turned into Melbourne's latest place to be.
Stairs descend from street level towards Chiodo, an up market yet low-key clothing shop in the basement of the Hero building (converted from a B-grade office building into retail spaces and boutique apartments in 1999 by Nonda Katsalidis). Halfway down, a landing leads to the even more discrete izakaya entrance.
Up to a thousand people each week manage to find it, returning life to this once unused site. Satisfying local appetites for places-to-be that are cool and secretive Izakaya Den contributes to the fabric (and economy) of the cultural scene thriving in Melbourne’s laneways, basements and rooftops.
Its success is as much a result of the owners’ research into izakaya culture as the designer’s ability to convey their desires into built form. Denton Corker Marshall knows Melbourne, playing a vital role in establishing laneway culture. With the owners of Izakaya Den they have introduced elements of mystery and delight to the underground streetscape.
The corridor opens into a long, high-ceilinged industrial space, windowless, with a wide black wood bar running down one side. The concrete-bunker bare bones of the space, with its exposed pipes and ducts, are mixed with the clean wooden lines of heavy bar stools surrounding the elevated tables along one wall and the |