Case Study:
Dishoom Restaurant, Kings Cross
Outline
The ethos of the Dishoom restaurants is rooted in the old Irani cafés of Bombay, which have now all but disappeared. Dishoom serves customers all day from breakfast to late night. Dishoom’s success has led to the opening of their third and largest restaurant at a new site called ‘The Stables’ which sits within the Western Transit Shed on Stable Street within the heritage heart of King’s Cross. As the name suggests, ‘The Stables’ was originally used to house horses to move goods and wagons around the Granary complex from 1850 to 1900 and the building still features the vaulted brick arches at the lower ground floor providing a very atmospheric venue. CGA Integration has designed and installed the audio throughout this Dishoom, which needed to reflect the spectacular venue and the passion for food and culture delivered by the Dishoom team. Working with music provider Music Concierge, CGA Integration has ensured that the chosen music tracks, to fully immerse customers in the Dishoom experience, can be heard at their very best.
Challenges
Dishoom Kings Cross is a very unique site, the restaurant is split into seven different areas over multiple levels of a partly listed building, which has curved ceilings, multiple hard surfaces and very interesting acoustics. The sound system which has presets for breakfast, lunch and dinner needed to be easily operated by the staff and ensure flexibility, as areas which include; a family room, mezzanine chefs table and bar may need to operate as a whole or as individual areas with many different uses depending on the occasion or time of day.
Technical
Ease of staff control of the sound systems was delivered through wall controls mounted in each of the seven zones of the restaurant. Audio was delivered throughout by installing EV Evid speakers on custom brackets; generating maximum sound quality with minimum visual impact, essential for the listed vaulted ceilings and to complement the Dishoom interior design. CGA Integration also used a Netmax digital sound processor to ensure that all seven areas of different speaker sets could work together to create a seamless audio experience throughout the venue, supported by EV multichannel amplifiers.
Response
Shamil Thakar of Dishoom commented “dining in Dishoom is very much a multisensory experience; we’d like to think that the restaurants have a unique buzz and vibrancy. CGA Integration have designed and installed an audio system which helps create this, blending with the interior design whilst fulfilling the requirements of a listed site and generating a fantastic sound for the customers to enjoy.”
