Smelt & Co has taken its inspiration and half of its name from smelt, which is on the verge of extinction and believed to bring good luck. It is the first restaurant & bar project of Pavé Studio, which undertakes its interior design and styling with a complementary language proceeding from the part to the whole, and realizes its brand identity design in collaboration with Can Zeran. Located in Balat, one of Istanbul’s neighbourhoods where different cultures come together in harmony by preserving their identities, in an old sanctuary building carrying the traces of Greek/Rum architecture, Smelt & Co opens a window reminding that we do not belong to a single geography and hosts traces from all these livings. While located only in the entrance floor of the building at the beginning, it has reflected the ideology of “changing and transforming while living” to the whole venue by expanding with its strong identity.
The conveyance of authenticity without any compromises from the presentation to the atmosphere as a whole has been turned into a part of the sincere attitude in the restaurant hosting a chef’s cuisine, where one establishes an emotional bond with the venue beyond the taste. Elegantly taking its place in the historical building which preserves its identity, Smelt & Co keeps its consistency by sharing the calm, original and free attitude of its creator in every field, which prioritizes that customers feel comfortable as if they were in their comfort zones. While contemporary site-specific designs are blended as harmonious accompaniments, a cozy, soft and sincere balance has been provided with selections of colour, texture and material. While the strong styling details match the sea green wooden ceiling with claret red in the entrance floor and enable to host different stories together, they give their place upstairs to an elegant but calm style which prefers sincerity over flamboyance. With the bar section making a contrast to the sincere and calm attitude upstairs and the terrace where the emphasis of timelessness strengthens, all these transitions display an attitude that makes one forget about the pair of time and space.
