Defining Dining, Manhattan Style

1.12.05

Bustling past the Radisson SAS hotel on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, it may not occur to you to pop in for a bite to eat. But inside lies a stylish new eatery Itchycoo, beckoning hungry punters at any time of day.

Prior to a time when it became the norm to know the calorific value of a cucumber, the British public feasted on whatever was put in front of them. As long as it was put in front of them at 8am, noon and whenever the breadwinner fell in the door.

You may be reading this over breakfast at dawn or dinner at 10pm (tasting the indigestion at every bite) so we don’t need to tell you that our eating culture has changed. Much of Scotland has, however, yet to cotton on to this fact, as anyone who has tried to order ‘soup of the day’ (or, as it turns out, ‘soup of the morning and part of the afternoon’) anywhere north of Perth after 2pm will know.

You can usually eat out when you want in the central belt, but it’s not always feasible to get what you want. Which brings us to a baronial style building on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, home to the Radisson SAS Hotel and its most recent project, Itchycoo Bar and Kitchen.

We say baronial style because this deceptive building was constructed in 1990—the site acquired by Danish firm Dancon—to be occupied by Scandic hotels. Photographs show the building being delivered in blocks measured exactly to equip the space with almost 250 bedrooms, their proportions rather more generous than those small exterior windows suggest.

Since taking ownership of the building in 2004 Radisson had refurbished the whole caboodle and somehow managed to remain open throughout. Itchycoo is the most recent element of the project to come to fruition, a contemporary eating space located just off the Royal Mile of which many passers-by—owing to the rather impenetrable façade – remain unaware.

It’s good to know about Itchycoo, not only because it’s a nice place to be, but also because it addresses our altered eating habits in an appealing way.

Radisson created a dining space here largely because the existing restaurant and downstairs bar were proving tricky for visitors and even residents to find. Sauntering into a hotel to find the bar is awkward and intimidating at the best of times but worse when you have to ask for a map.

Past projects by Radisson—including the Collage Bar—in its Glasgow hotel—have been executed in conjunction with the charismatic Dr Roy Ackerman CBE. Regarded as a guru in establishing concepts for hotels, restaurants and chefs world wide, Roy’s understanding of dining on an international scale was brought to bear in this new space.

Current eating habits in Manhattan have fuelled what’s informally described here at Itchycoo as a bar and kitchen rather than a restaurant. The menu consists of a series of small platters and allows diners the freedom to eat as much or as little as they like. “People are eating whenever they want and don’t always want the challenge of a three course meal when they’re out”, says Roy. “Itchycoo makes it possible to order smaller portions of various dishes and then enjoy them in a relaxed environment”.

If you’re thinking this sounds awfully like tapas, you’re right, although Itchycoo’s menu offers less predictable options and encourages diners to take their time mixing and matching choices listed under sea, farm and field. It’s about avoiding a steadfast list of dishes, borrowing instead the elements from each that you really want on your plate.

The design of the distinctively named Itchycoo (familiar if you’re a child of the sixties) is by Glasgow’s Graven Images, who also worked on Collage Bar.

Within the Scandic hotel this space was a restaurant while Radisson had latterally been using it as a conference room for which there was no real need in this prime, front-of-house spot. The new design has opened the space to an existing corridor and covers ground somewhere between the intimate and the ample.

For Jim Hamilton of Graven Images this was the last piece in a very extensive jigsaw involving the overall refurbishment of the hotel, including all those bedrooms and the elegant reception from which Itchycoo opens.

It’s part of an ongoing plan to enhance Itchycoo’s street presence. For now the venue is reassuringly accessible: the moment you step through the hotel doors you encounter the eatery’s glass entrance. Elegant ceiling arches have been built to create a smooth relationship between the reception and the new space.

Internally the designers complemented the flexible dining mood with a similar approach to seating. “There are different types of seating for different types of people”, says Jim, who had the task of making the most of a rather awkward space, part of which occupies a small corner turret.

Naturally intimate with small, high windows, this circular area is a perfect booth for groups and the choice of finish makes it a real focus. Mapolean Bee wallpaper will be instantly recognisable to anyone with a passing knowledge of designs by Timorous Beaties, the black and gold colourway a decadent backdrop to the dark leather seating. Jim had planned an eye-catching pendant light here but it wasn’t until he encountered the striking Big Band chandelier that he knew what form it would take. The design, by Foscarini, was spotted in Glasgow’s Dallas & Dallas, its metacrylate planes slotted in apparently random fashion into one another to play with light and shadow. Substantial in its presence it is nevertheless airy and unobtrusive above the small drinks table.

Usually the ceiling plays second fiddle to flooring but here the latter is in simple white tiles (in line with reception) while the former is an engaging mix of orange washed timber and mushroom coloured paintwork, a continuation of the wall surfaces themselves. Jim explains that while walnut is often a client’s first choice, they chose to do something different by literally washing the timbers in orange paint to create a more tropical feel, warm and welcoming in the low space alongside darker woods of the bar and tables.

For a cosier dining experience there is a series of wall mounted tables with low, olive leather seating. Detail comes in the green glass candleholders and paper napkin rings, depicting the same botanical motif as worn by the venue’s glass doors.

Additional impact is provided, against another Napolean Bee-clad wall, by a series of photographs in Perspex cases. Entitled ‘Facets’, the five images of iconic figures including Louis Armstrong and Salvador Dali have been folded to 3D effect. They’re the work of Welsh artist Robert Kingdom, also known as actor-writer Bob Kingdom. His folds furnish each image with various perspectives and alter what the viewer perceives in each face as they walk past (you’ll have to look closely to see which creases are natural, and which are man-made).

Sitting a little incongruously among all this fine style there’s a flat screen TV which provides a comfortable diversion for those visiting on their own. But it’s certainly worth looking around, too. A few stars have already been spotted in the venue, which with its flexible approach to socialising and the interior design to match is equally suited to single girls and groups of friends as it is to tourists and film stars. Everyone, it seems, is more than welcome to park themselves at Itchycoo.