Project by Youri Kravtchenko & Marion Vergne | Construction management by Marion Vergne | With the collaboration of the artist Pedro Varias | Photo by Alicia Dubuis | 2024
Le Dorian is an emblematic and historic restaurant-brasserie, ideally located near Geneva's Grand Théâtre, taken over by chef Florian Le Bouhec. The history of Le Dorian dates back to the 1950s. The brasserie takes its name from its first owner, a stage actress named Mademoiselle Dorian. A wealthy lover had offered her the building, thus giving birth to a romantic story where art and music still occupy a central place. So we had to change everything without... changing anything.
Avoiding disrupting the historic typology of the premises and preserving the essence of the walls, cornices, mouldings and baseboards, we proceeded with replacements, additions and subtractions, while multiplying the objects and motifs. In the kitchen, we designed a brand-new work tool. In the dining room, tired carpeting and yellowed walls gave way to canvas: black carpeting and a white floor for the veranda, designed to accommodate drawings by artist and tattooist Pedro Sassi, aka Varias Tatu.
On a black background, food, crockery and Béchamel, the owner's dog, were first drawn in pencil, then printed on virgin wool. On a white background, the same drawings were reinterpreted by mosaic artist Mathilde Herrero. On the walls, the artist approached the work of a tattoo artist, engraving lines sometimes thin, sometimes thick, in harmony with the surrounding lines and context. Finally, in a grotesque and heterogeneous register, the new rocaille-style bar almost seems to be reflected in the chrome donut-shaped lamps, imagined by Marseille designer Axel Chay.
