A new restaurant on the ground floor of Hotel Portinari is a design and branding response to the ever-changing restaurant landscape in Bruges
Dark hues, a play of light and unusual textures inform a new Bruges restaurant, Cult, designed by Antwerp-based studio WeWantMore.
Launched by renowned sommeliers Luk De Rooze and Kees Dobbelaar, Cult space brings their love of wine and grilled meat to a new concept and location.
Portinari, the city of Bruges and its well-known painters, such as Hans Memling who painted a portrait of Tomasso Portinari, were the inspiration behind WeWantMore’s design for this new restaurant. The result is a dramatic setting with an intense play of chiaroscuro: strong natural light that contrasts with a dark interior enriched by interesting textures. The veranda is light and intimate, and the bar in the back adds drama.
“When Luk and Kees approached us to design Cult, we wanted to create something people would remember and want to come back to again and again,” says Nancy Cool, Interiors Design Director at WeWantMore. “The design teams – both on the interior design side and the branding side – wanted to create a space with high drama that was also restrained in a very Belgian way.”
In the bar, a burgundy red volume above the bar sets the scene. The bar itself is a proof-point of luxury with dark veneer, velvet fabrics and leather detailing. The marble countertop has dark red veins, referencing the meat dishes served in the restaurant. Subtly lit wall panelling upholstered in tactile cow hide offset wine-coloured sofas.
Through arched doorways cleverly clad in reflective steel, the veranda is dedicated to diners and flooded with natural light. The play of light continues with a steel-clad waiters’ station that cuts the space in two.
As well as the interior, WeWantMore was responsible for the branding of Cult. Sharp colour contrasts, moody lighting and the play of red tones dominate the photography. The logo is created with sharp lines as though it was cut by the ultrasharp cooks’ knives. The typography chosen is LL Bradford offering a wide variety for informal but also very serious usage.
ABOUT WE WANT MORE
WeWantMore is an independent design studio founded by Ruud Belmans and Thomas Vanden Abeele in 2006 and based in Antwerp, Belgium. It’s a place where more than 30 designers from various expertise in brand and interior design inspire each other, resulting in work that bends the mind and touches the heart. Over the years they challenged the status quo for clients such as AccorHotels, Neuhaus, Decospan, CMB, Alken-Maes, Orac, Loop, Sportpaleis Group and GIMBE. The studio operates at the forefront of a new wave of creatives who blur the boundaries between the junctions of design, art and entertainment, to create intricate work that is comfortable in the context of contemporary design culture.
