Wid Chapman Architects have been Shortlisted for Restaurant – The Americas Award in The International Hotel and Property Awards 2021.

Dhamaka celebrates Indian street-inspired cuisine with a chaotic, colourful palette of shapes, textures and iconography. “Dhamaka” means a “bang” or “blast” in Hindi. With this in mind, Wid Chapman Architects were keen to celebrate the Indian notion of “Jugaad”, that there is art and use in broken things and that the non-conventional can be useful and valuable, a nod to the resourceful and innovative spirit of humanity.

The restaurant is located in the new Essex Street market on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It occupies a prime street-front location on Delancey street and, while it has its own entrance, it is also open to the vast, bustling indoor marketplace. It integrates the restaurant into a larger urban setting and in that respect, it is reminiscent of an outdoor food vendor. As you approach the restaurant from either the street entrance or the market you are met with a vibrant bar.

The custom made, illuminated bottle holder above the bar feels like it could be made from a leftover truck wheel or oil drum. The hand-painted Hindi graphics on bottles suggest a collection of bootleg elixirs. The irregular wooden geometry of the back bar screen and bottle storage feels like an urban grill floating over the graffiti mural behind it. In the dining area you are met with two walls composed of irregular sculptural panels. These forms provide a “shattered” canvas, shards of objects that hint at a whole, but one that cannot be re-created. A controlled chaos. Backlighting animates the negative space between them.

The designs works so well as it makes you feel like you have been transported to another place. Along with the authentic food and lively music it is creating a complete, enveloping experience for the customer. The wider environment is the new home to the historic Essex Street Market. So, the fact that Dhamaka is focused on street food-inspired cuisine, it is a very fitting interior-urban setting, in the heart of Manhattan’s lively and gritty Lower East Side.

Wid Chapman Architects

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