Casino grand café

Christchurch Casino’s recently reincarnated Grand Café is now less Vegas-style Luxor and more luxe. Out go the pseudo-Egyptian trappings, in comes a theatrical sophistication.

Christchurch Casino’s Grand Café is the venue’s signature dining space. For 15 years it had been in continuous use 24/7 turning out breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets. It was getting tired, and working with the new chef’s vision for a more elegant buffet breakfast, set-menu lunch and à la carte dinner service, the café has been completely reimagined and rationalised in relation to the adjoining spaces.

This is the third stage of a five stage refurbishment. The lady brushes up well at the hands of Christchurch superstar architecture firm Warren and Mahoney. There’s a certain sense of rightness here, given that the bones of the building were designed by no less than Sir Miles Warren himself, submerged beneath the OTT decadent flourishes – very s London – of designer Tom Dixon. Gone are the Venturi Vegas, kitsch faux Egyptian trappings in favour of a theatrical hybrid of opulent-but-utilitarian modernism and the kind of sumptuous European salons familiar to Dostoevsky (if you recall his novel The Gambler) and the eternally fast and louche James Bond alike. Indeed, the playful, new bespoke carpet greatly resembles the opening credits of the Bond redux movie Casino Royale, inspired by the suits of playing cards. The vibrant patterns on the carpet are a direct reference to the hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs on the building facade outside.

The result is elegant, theatrical, functional and eminently flexible. The boutique feel of the original and the design relationship with the whole has been retained through the careful use of surface finishes, detailing and lighting. Minimalist white lacquer and rococo-esque bevelled mirror panels on the upper level visually integrate the Grand Café with the neighbouring large space of the Gaming Hall, unusually for a casino, reflecting the outside natural light from the six existing double-height windows. The grandeur of the double-height space is brought down to a more human scale by the warm and welcoming ash-veneer panels at the lower level. The furniture is also bespoke: classic dark-stained oak upholstered in rich pistachio-green leather by Montreux. Dominating the setting from above, and completing the “Louey Sezz” impression, is the enormous ‘paper’ chandelier and its chorus line of more modest siblings designed by Studio Job for Dutch design house Moooi. Previously the Grand Café was completely detached from the lights and noise of the Gaming Hall.

The new plan links the two with the quiet and intimate Diamond Bar, a plush, chic space with a dramatically sculptured ceiling of nested metal, constructivist diamond forms and striking curtains of Dixondesigned, glass “Beat” pendants (recycled from the old interior) over the marble-faced bar, which can provide private dining, a salon privé, or overflow space for larger functions. This area is accessible from multiple points aside from the playing-card-backinspired partition separating it from the Grand Café, including a discretely hidden panel at the reception desk.

The Diamond Bar feels perfectly insulated and private after the large, open and very public spaces on either side of it. It’s flash, but not so flash that it’s intimidating. Not bad for NZ$ 2,, and a stylish, articulate solution to a fairly difficult building footprint and the strata of 15 years of ad hoc barnacle-like additions and compromises. This is something of a clean sweep. Given that post-quake Christchurch is short on elegant venues where one can hit the tiles dressed up like a million-dollar trooper (as the song goes), the Grand Café provides just the right sort of environment, even if that sophisticated elegance does not always translate to the more casual sartorial preferences of the punters at the pokies across the way.