HORA BISTRO

There was a buffet with tradition at lunchtime. A pleasant little square, paradoxically surrounded by modest housing, with balconies ornamented by the prosaic habits of the locals, shared by Chef Miguel Reis. A landscape of habits is not enough for the restless spirit and the aspiration of the food lovers – to welcome, to serve and delight.

We found two uncharacteristic commercial spaces, cleaned in white, with a rectangular plant. Thus, animated by half a dozen bucolic motives. Only a diagonal extension hid the toilets. Empty, devoid of intention, this is the image I retain of it.

There was no budget for adjectives, the only possible one was “worthy”. Dignity is the quality of what is honest, appropriate and noble.

We wanted to re-do with the expression of memories. As in food, the intense taste of simple things. One taste at a time. The tradition renewed.

The expressiveness of a mortar, without more, would be sufficiently authentic. Pavement, wall and vaulted ceilings, like a conventual cafeteria, would be the same surface executed with the plastic expression of the cement paste, structured on dry pine wood trusses. The tables are pine tables, as they have always been in taverns. Thick, firm, hard, eternal but soft to the touch. The legs of the tables in thin black steel profiles, merged with the profiles of the black chairs.

Chef Miguel Reis’ restaurant renovation in Trofa, Porto

Project: NOARQ – José Carlos Nunes de Oliveira 

Photo:  Arménio Teixeira

Material Used: TON – chairs – Ironica Collection

2021-06-23