Step inside Koumkan, Athens’ new bar of moody glamour and whimsy

Within the Fifties and 60s, Athens’ society swans gathered in a membership within the old-moneyed Kifisia quarter, their pastime of alternative, countless rounds of koum kan, a devilish Greek model of rummy. On the flip of this century, the venue was absorbed into the Karim Rashid-designed Semiramis Resort as a restaurant and bar, from which it just lately emerged from a tip-to-toe refurbishment by New York-based design studio, Manhattan Tasks.

Koumkan, Athens

The makeover breathes new life into Koumkan by creating dramatically staged room units. Every area is dressed to the nines in a palette that’s at turns expensively moody and at others stylishly whimsical, its entirety, the designers say, is supposed to evoke the vibe of an inter-war bar in Milan or Vienna. The tone is about on the entrance the place a staircase encased in travertine descends from the road stage right into a pink-hued lobby, its bijou proportions cleverly disguised by floor-to-ceiling mirrored partitions.

From this comparatively austere entry, Manhattan Tasks flip up the dial because it unfolds a sequence of areas saturated in color and textures. A darkly moody bar with all of the feels of Batman’s lair is swathed in inexperienced marble from Tinos, Sixties stainless-steel sconces and a futuristic, horizontal chandelier.

This opens out into an enormous, cave-like area, its hovering ceiling exaggerated by 4 metre-high chandeliers of glass rods and mirrored panels that forged dizzying reflections and light-weight – an impact Manhattan Tasks describes as an ‘inside-out disco ball’. Framed by Iranian pink travertine, the elongated banana-shaped banquettes, in the meantime, are swathed in a light-weight pink material produced by a neighborhood artisan who additionally provides materials to the Vatican and native Orthodox church buildings.

Towards such an exuberant setting, the kitchen works exhausting to maintain up with an eclectic menu touched with French, American, Italian and Japanese influences. Present crowdpleasers embody buttermilk fried rooster served up with lime mayonnaise and Oscietra, Petrossian salmon crudo, a brioche of truffled grilled cheese, and a juicy slab of Chateaubriand draped with a yakiniku sauce.

Submit-prandial treats vary from a knickerbocker of ice cream and marshmallow, and Sacher torte, to lavish cocktails – suppose Negronis arriving on the desk with buttered caramel popcorn, and spritzes with cherry soda – the latter finest loved both by the pool simply past the restaurant, or again within the bar the place dwell DJs obligingly hold the nice occasions spinning until daybreak.