Esquire Restaurant, designed by HASSELL in collaboration with owners Cameron Murchison and Ryan Squires (Squires is also the chef) has an elegant and contemporary environment that matches the clean, pure food. The dining space is spare, masculine and luxurious and it aims to convey the crispness and honesty of the food that is prepared at the restaurant.
The wider context is the city’s financial district, in the more glamorous end of the town. Finishes like honed Charmont marble, polished concrete floors and sleek steel in a minimalist palette of greys, browns and blacks feel at home here.
Firewood is neatly stacked on the long perimeter bar table to give the clue that open fire cooking is on the cards. The second open kitchen is a flurry of activity with a team of chefs preparing an exquisite array of rarefied produce, with all the grace and intuition of artists. Designer David Edmonds’s ceramic platters in earthy colours and organic shapes complete the picture.
