- Porters is The Earl of Bradford’s new restaurant in the Hertfordshire village of Berkhamsted, sited in a new commercial building on the site of the former High Street Post Office sorting office. The design of the restaurant celebrates the local and seasonal food philosophy whilst reinterpreting the traditional English restaurant vernacular. Local and seasonal are honest, ‘slow’ values and RRA were inspired by the same aspirations as our client to create a mouth-watering restaurant.
- Location: Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
- Value: £250k
- Contractor: Goldstar
- Structural Engineer: RWA Consulting
- Specialist Timber Cladding: Havwoods
- Specialist Copper Cladding: KME
- Photo Credit: Charles Sturge
- Categories: Leisure / Retail
The first response was to use contemporary detailing to create a palette of quality and accents of detail.
Our client asked us to design a quirky restaurant with elements of humour; the stag’s horn pendant lights and glitter ball in the ladies’ washroom certainly does that.
RRA nested an array of banquette seats into the white interior, top-lit by clerestory glazing, to give views onto an adjoining herb garden and outdoor dining space, which has been planted to create a kitchen garden to supply produce for the restaurant.
A contrasting colour palette of pastel-coloured leather, mild steel framing, wood feature walls and bronze was employed across the interior of the bar and restaurant.
The new bar front, and the glazed steel-framed panelling throughout the bar and kitchen were designed and bespoke-made, and finished with beeswax spray, whilst the floor of the bar uses a resin-coated slab.
The 74-seater restaurant features geometric cement tiles. A feature fireplace, with a curved glass flue, draws you in to create atmosphere within the restaurant.
The pitched ceiling was interspersed with bespoke bronze light features and cantilevered mezzanine washroom blocks were inserted into the ridges of the roof-space.
Bronze-disc pendant lights hang from the sloping ceiling, while short LED ribbon-lights are discretely set into the wooden framing.
The restaurant and bar are furnished with dark tables and a selection of contemporary Italian chairs.