Colaba gets it again. Somehow, the old charm of Colaba continues to attract new additions of restaurants and clubs. Old heritage buildings retain their charm and exude a sense of timelessness by keeping the high-profile new businesses coming in. Amarchand Mansion on Madame Cama Road is now home to a swanky and expensive restaurant, Ellipsis.
Designed by award-winning German designer Thomas Schoos of California, Ellipsis stays true to its belonging of 19th century building. Schoos’s basic play with the original underlying elements of colonial era is noteworthy. Features are not covered and hidden with current layers of contemporary materials. By doing so and yet creating a new look that fuses past with the new must have been an interesting challenge that Schoos must have loved to attack. He has managed this quite successfully.
Keeping old elements intact as much as possible, along with introducing new design features which are subtle and yet blend effortlessly, is not easy. What Thomas Schoos has done is played with subtleties and brought carefully crafted an understated furniture assortment, light fixtures, wooden flooring and soft furnishings at places. The overall impact is downplayed but still comes together as striking in its own way. For a designer, this is an achievement.
Schoos has played a lot with walls, accent lighting and brought in a splash of vintage paintings and they have been placed randomly and that makes one feel as if they are in the villa of a painter who is giving a tour of his house, a sneak peek into his personal space and work.
Ellipsis is an upscale place which aims to cater to the crème de la crème of the town. This is an elite expensive restaurant by all standards. The owners Rohan Talwar and Ranbir Batra have spared no expense on the experience they intended to create. From the bespoke built environment to the carefully crafted menu of food and drinks and detailed attention to staff training, their designer uniforms; all aiming to constitute a luxurious experience.
Fine dining is all about creating that unique experience through not just about food but also the complete spatial experience where people like to keep coming back for a slice of that exquisite and exceptional savoir-faire.
Images courtesy of Thomas Schoos.
