Snack Man by Nielsen Jenkins

Snack Man is a wine and cocktail bar serving Chinese share-plate cuisine on a busy street in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. The key gesture of the fitout was to straighten the lower portion of an existing curtain wall and replace it with an articulated facade of operable windows and doors. This enables better engagement with the street and its canopy of heritagelisted fig trees, and allows the opened street facade to be occupied and moved through. Inside, the design creates a range of spatial experiences for patrons through volumetric differentiation and careful planning.

A minimal fitout in a dark palette is a strong visual contrast to the owner’s other restaurant next door, Happy Boy. The trees are a constant presence within the space, particularly at night when their lights become the primary light source within the bar and their shadows dance along the organized rhythm of the new facade. Photography — Shantanu Starick Nielsen Jenkins — nielsenjenkins.com