Project Team

design: owners

Kenobi, Melbourne’s newest addition to the CBD bar scene, offers guests a unique opportunity to experience some of the world’s finest cocktails and Asian food in a New York Pop Art environment, heavily influenced by the design, colour and fashion of the time.

Situated in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, the likes of Andy Warhol and his influence over that period of time, have all helped inspire and influence the venue’s design.

The venue is the creation of After Dark Hospitality Group Pty Ltd, an Australian based collective of Melbourne Hospitality people. They are also looking at opening venues in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The venue is situated in the basement and was a pre-existing nightclub. Unique features include rustic recycled timbers and exposed rusted metal rings, private booths, a Japanese inspired raised outdoor private area and a cinema during the week complete with fresh popcorn.

“Our collective group have had decades of experience in hospitality and they were quite head strong on the vision from day one,” commented venue manager Simon Heaysmen. “We have two large sized bars, private elevated booths and a VIP area that can facilitate up to 40 patrons at any one time and a restaurant dining area for 60 people. We wanted to create a casual and relaxing environment for our customers, a place where they can sip on some of our exclusive cocktail collections or nibble on some snacks from our menu.”

The concept was to highlight the impact of pop culture particularly the arts, in New York during the early 1980’s.

”Design principals were simple, and we were to take into consideration the impact of various materials have on our environment,” added Simon. “This is why we chose recycled timbers and exposed weathered metals.”

The colour scheme was largely influenced by the various pop art design pieces displayed on the walls. The use of colour in most of Andy Warhols art was a consistent theme in the design.

The raw concrete floors, exposed weather metal rings in front of the booth area and abundance of colour in the art works hanging on the walls all helps tie the concept together.

The lighting pattern is simple and is used to only highlight particular items with in the venue.

“Certainly we are very happy to see the influences of the 1980’s pop art culture that has been carried through the entire venue from the front window, which greets you with a smiling Marilyn Monroe face, right down to our food and cocktail menus, that all tie in the same theme of random stenciled coloured screen printing over random  photo objects,” said Simon. “Its very hard not to fall in love with the large image on the front widow of a smiling Marilyn Monroe, we all love it!

“The most beautiful thing about our design is that the space continues to evolve day by day. We are always adding new local artists works to the venue.”