Wallpaper 7

Photography: Maxime Brouillet; Eric Laignel; Laure Joliet

Thirty-ive years after the last secret

handshake was exchanged, Highland Park’s

landmark Masonic Lodge has been given a

new lease of life as a theatre and performing

arts venue. The LA-based studio Design,

Bitches has been careful to preserve original

features of the 1923 Renaissance Revival-

styled block, not least the ornamental

chandeliers and cherry-wood panels. But it’s

the designers’ intervention in the restaurant

that really catches the eye, with Timorous

Beasties’ ‘Thistle’ wallpaper, Thonet’s ‘Era’

chairs, Normann Copenhagen’s ‘Form’ bar

stools and a black marble bar top. It’s a great

space in which to sample chef Hovig Agop’s

rustic Mediterranean dishes, such as grilled

octopus with labneh or mizuna salad.

104 North Avenue 56, 2nd loor, tel: 1.323 509 7416,

checkerhall.com

Showstopper

CHECKER HALL, LOS ANGELES

Opened in 1886, the Gran Hotel Inglés has

entertained everyone from Virginia Woolf

to Henri Matisse. But after 130 years of

service, the grand pile in Madrid’s Literary

Quarter was showing its age. Happily, the

Rockwell Group has just completed a stylish

tip-to-toe renovation, keeping intact

the ine bones of the 19th-century building

while breathing new life into the public

spaces and 48 rooms (including a top-loor

suite, pictured here). Chef Willy Moya’s

Lobo 8 restaurant, meanwhile, ofers

traditional tapas and Madrilenian classics

such as the fried squid sandwich. A nice

touch is the hotel’s library of some 600

volumes curated by Spanish publisher

Zenda, also available to guests on Kindles.

Calle Echegaray 8, tel: 34.91 360 00 01,

granhotelingles.com. Rates: from €250

New chapter

GRAN HOTEL INGLÉS, MADRID

Korean-born, Colorado-raised chef

Akira Back is quietly building a culinary

empire that stretches from Singapore

and New Delhi to Las Vegas and Seoul, and

now Toronto. At the city’s Bisha Hotel,

Back enlisted local irm Studio Munge

to create a 3,000 sq ft space featuring

a black marbled bar (where guests can sip

on a Kinoko martini, made with shiitake-

infused vodka), sombre panelling and

glossy gold accents, and a dreamy ceiling

of hand-painted indigo petals. It’s a suitably

dramatic setting for Back to showcase his

repertoire of Korean-Japanese fusion

dishes such as toro caviar and gochujang

miso, and Jidori chicken shimmering

with a maple teriyaki glaze.

Bisha Hotel, 2nd loor, 80 Blue Jays Way,

tel: 1.437 800 5967, akirabacktoronto.com

Dark materials

AKIRA BACK, TORONTO

096 ∑

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