Project Team

design: Matt Riley

Photos: Angus Martin

Tonic Espresso + Bar is located in a space that used to be a garage entry / carpark. It’s a small out of the way urban location in a back street in Fortitude Valley. The space is right next door to an architects office who owns and runs the bar.

The space needed to work both during the day (as an espresso bar) and at night as a bar. The space needed to be functional during the busy bustle of day café trade, and a relaxing place to have a quiet drink after work in the evening, but also to be able to cope with a busy night as a bar. The designer and owner was very focused in activating the street / laneway on which the space fronts. In keeping with the theme of having a bar next to a Design Studio – TONIC Architecture / interiors / design / urbanism, they also wanted to show how thoughtful design strategies with a limited budget can add to the feeling of the space.

They utilized and extended into the existing front carpark area to form the external front lawn space. This space forms the main outdoor bar seating area and is the main interactive space between the bar and the urban street environment. This is an important space, when attempting to activate streets / laneways and to draw people into the space.

They also wanted to set up various types of flexible internal and external seating arrangements given the combined trading genres of café and bar. These seating strategies needed to be functional but still allow people to be seen and to see the street. There are long high tables for large groups and where 2 -3 people can sit together communally with others. Long and comfy banquette seating suits single people or small groups. People are able to sit at one end of the bar and look out, people are able to stand up near the bar and use the leaner shelf which runs down the long wall.

The outdoor deck chairs are the most comfortable seat in the house – definitely table service is needed if you are inclined to the deck chairs, once you’re in you don’t want to get out. Although quite tight for

space, the bar has been designed functionally with two stations for patrons, one that serves out onto the front lawn and one into the internal space. There is also a dispensing station internally to allow for table service.

Given the urban location of the space and it’s previous life as a garage / warehouse, they wanted to install a little bit of that history into the new design. Hence the rawness of the brick walls and the concrete floor add on to this aesthetic by using ply sheet which added a certain rawness to the design.

The colours needed to work well both day and night. Plain tones such as whites, blacks, exposed timber, with a highlight of red for warmth, were chosen. A spray paint art feature, by Matt Stewart, on the brick wall brings a bit of the urbanchic of the street into the space. It is a talking point and a feature for the space and it offers an opportunity to bring in the theme of the bar (TONIC) in a subtle way.

The custom design lighting features lamp battens and power cords and junction boxes with exposed bulbs added to the urban aesthetic of the space. The exposed bulbs when dimmed appear to be floating in the space. They also have quite a raw industrial style to them.

A modern take on a traditional white picket fence is out front. These fence panels are made from relatively inexpensive café banner stands with different size timber battens and a timber top rail which acts as a leaner. It allows people to sit at the edge of the external space and look out. While the gaps between the battens are large enough to ensure that you do not feel too enclosed from the street.