Holborn Grind, the fourth London-area coffee and cocktail bar from founders Kaz James and David Abrahamovitch (a fifth location recently opened in London’s Stratford neighborhood), leads a double life. In the morning, patrons can enjoy a piping hot espresso with a pastry, then, later in the evening, find themselves sipping a martini (with espresso, naturally) into the wee hours. And the café-pub hybrid seamlessly caters to both.
That’s intentional, says Jean-Pierre Biasol, principal of Biasol: Design Studio (Melbourne, Australia), which transformed the narrow, 861-square-foot space that lives within The Hoxton, a boutique hotel in the Holborn neighborhood. “The ability to transition from day to night was paramount to the overall concept,” he says. “We specially curated a mix of lighting solutions … to achieve the desired level of intimacy and warmth.” Among those solutions are dimmable pendants and wall lights with Edison bulbs that coordinate with natural light, flooding the space via 15-foot-tall, floor-to-ceiling windows.
Holborn Grind’s design mixes the refined with the distressed: Intricate antique brass tubular shelving is suspended above the bar – which Biasol notes is a nod to the polished cocktail carts of the ’50s – and luxe hexagonal marble tiles are juxtaposed with exposed brick, textured concrete and reclaimed pale oak flooring. The flooring is laid on a diagonal to break up the linear nature of the room.
A finishing flourish is the glowing neon sign upon a side wall that reads “Love is the drug,” a Roxy Music song lyric that serves as a subtle salute to founder James’ background as a disc jockey and music producer.
Photography: Paul Winch Furness, London