Collingwood’s restaurant hot-spot Smith Street is home to the latest
Meatball & Wine Bar, appropriately nicknamed ‘Smithballs’.

The new venue features an evocative graffiti mural by Dan Wenn of artist agency, 90 Degrees. Glowing in all its orange neon glory is a sign that reads the all too relatable apology, ‘I’m sorry for what I said when I was hungry’. There are familiar themes to the Smithballs design, and patrons will feel at home with the atmospheric neon light fittings, natural wood features and the walls of rough red brick.

The site is an old building with high ceilings and raw, exposed bricks on each side. There are two beautiful of steel beams traversing the space which give an industrial feel.

Matteo Bruno wanted to create a warm and comfortable environment that was conducive to drinking. The space is fairly dark and lends itself to being more masculine, so he wanted to make it softer by introducing warm lighting, banquette seating, a massive distressed mirror and a big bright red neon.

The bar was already in place so all Matteo had to do was envisage the seating plan, which he drew on the floors with chalk.

Matteo referenced previous venues by choosing wood, black tiles, leather, Edison globes, distressed mirror and copper to wrap around the bar.

The materials used really inform the colour scheme. The textural qualities are extremely important and probably the most visual element you notice when entering the venue is the massive copper bar and the huge expanse of exposed brick wall.

The distressed mirror gives a great sense of depth and coupled with the high ceilings, makes the space appear much bigger than it actually is.

Matteo prefers to use minimal lighting and chose to have one large light feature – a big neon that reads: I’m sorry for what I said when I was HUNGRY”. He also uses candles wherever possible although this time he’s not used wax, but filled jars with marbles and a slow burning oil with a fibreglass wick.

The use of rio to create wine racks is a favourite design solution: the current wine rack holds over 1500 bottles of wine and it’s super rustic and beautiful at the same time.

Matteo commissioned two graffiti works in the venue; one is a large format of several cured meats hanging off a rail and the other is a spiralling artwork of rolling hills dotted with cows.

Your Sound Investment provded several large Quest speakers and a very large, powerful subwoofer.