Ama Bar, in Vancouver, is horny and a little bit disorienting

Sensual, nostalgic and a little bit disorienting – that’s exactly what entering into Ama, a newly opened cocktail lounge and uncooked bar in Vancouver, looks like. Nestled inside a two-storey Nineteen Seventies walk-up, the 52-seat eatery by companions and brothers Yianni and Petro Kerasiotis and Takuya Motohash stays hid from the road till its signal illuminates. Friends are then ushered by a discreet coral-red cage door and a big staircase which ascends into the primary area, distinctively suffused with a retro-futuristic orange glow akin to Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049.

Ama Bar, the place actuality and fantasy collide

Darcy Hanna and Emma Sims, co-founders of studio &Daughters, had a transparent imaginative and prescient from the beginning as Ama’s design crew: they sought to design an area the place ‘friends may have a transformative expertise’, which, subsequently, guided all inventive selections. The Canadian duo started by sealing off two home windows to remove pure mild and draw all focus to a considerable U-shaped bar on the room’s centre, the place the chef now prepares sushi and is seen to and from the friends. ‘This interaction of observing and being noticed is accentuated by semi-translucent mirrors lining the outside partitions, creating a terrific sense of intimacy,’ recount Hanna and Sims.

The bar prime is clad in polished black granite and its floor is hid in a reflective materials that catches the encircling mild, which induces a way of mild psychedelia. Flanking the bar ends are two imposing pillars that body backlit cabinets displaying sake bottles and spirits. Heat textured plastered partitions additionally characteristic nuanced semi-transparent golden mirrors. Rectilinear cutouts, volumes and voids improve spatial symmetry. On the identical time, a bulkhead alongside the perimeter partitions unifies the area growing pure circulate, integrating banquette seating, a coat test, a wine wall with a decanter station, the again bar and a ready bench.

Contributing to the magical environment is the overarching restaurant idea. Ama, that means ‘sea girls’ in Japanese, honours the standard feminine divers who’ve been harvesting seafood and pearls for hundreds of years in Japan. Hanna and Sims reveal that the idea for the primary eating space preceded the naming: ‘Graphic design studio Glasfurd & Walker actually interpreted the essence of the room, in addition to the meals and beverage choices, all which finally impressed the general idea of Ama. And, in some ways, the luminous high quality of the area seeks to evoke the valuable pearls the divers search.’

Upon being introduced with the naming, branding and conceptual course, Hanna and Sims determined to revisit the entry and stairwell design to include parts that immediately celebrated the divers. ‘We completed this by enveloping all the stairwell in a deep chilly darkish blue tone. Moreover, a customized optic mild set up hanging from above mimics the bioluminescence of undersea creatures and the motion of bubbles. On the prime of the steps, a lightbox acts as a beacon bearing a glowing picture of a diver washed in blue.’ From the cocktail menu, created by Troy Resch, to its elegant and mouth-watering dishes, Ama actually showcases the flavours of Japan in an otherwordly setting the place actuality and fantasy blur.

Ama Bar is positioned at 3980 Fraser Avenue, Vancouver