Babel Gardens

Odesa, Ukraine

Concept development. Identity design. Development of USP taking into account the analysis of the competitors’ market.

The concept of Babel Gardens, which literally means Babel Gardens, was inspired by the writer Isaac Babel, who lived and created in the house where the restaurant is located nowadays in 1920-1924. As the key theme of the stories that made the writer famous was the life in Odessa, so the underlying idea that formed the concept of the restaurant is consonant with this theme.

But what Odessa are all these words and all these feelings about?

Probably unhurried and charming, smiling and flourishing, multi-faceted, but always authentic.

About the city by the Black Sea, which changes together with time, but the soft sun, streaming through the sweet fragrance of acacia trees, warmly reminds you of the traditions of Odessa streets, where the walls are woven with grapes, and sincere laughter is picked up by the dusty wind. And even if the clothes and speech of the townspeople are no longer similar to those in the early stories of the writer, but the love of carefree and joyful life here still captivates everyone, involving them in a playful, light, measured and lazy from the heat, but so true Odessa rhythm, resembling the music of the surf.

This is the kind of Odessa the Babel Gardens restaurant is talking about – the city, which as if it didn’t exist, and the city, which has always been. It’s about traditions in a modern interpretation and about modernity that arises from these traditions. A place out of time. A place of charisma and spirit.

Everything here is unhurried, because enjoying life has no patience for haste, but only exists in the moment of the present. Unconditional happiness multiplied by gastronomic pleasures reigns here. And not without reason the second meaning of Babel Gardens – “Babel Gardens” – one of the wonders of the world, once created to delight and delight. In fact, even now, the restaurant, which is hidden in a secluded place, inaccessible to the bustle and thoughts, is a triumphant, elegantly carefree and somewhat idle garden, which tempts with its elegance and fascinates with the flavors of food.

The very air in the restaurant is steeped in history, because it was inherited from the founders of the city, but bright notes of current reality juicy inclusions transform the appearance of Babel Gardens every day. That’s why the tastes of all countries and the possibilities of modern culinary trends are intertwined here, but the respect for the local product remains the basis for creativity. It’s the same multinationality and multiculturalism that have always characterized Odessa that made it possible to combine Israeli hummus, Kiev cutlet and Italian pasta on one table, while seasoning the serves with indigenous seaside meanings.

And so everything here is completely new, except for one thing: the tradition of “just living, as only this sunny city can do. And that is the tradition of not looking for a reason to fall in love with the world, with yourself or with your tastes; the tradition of not looking for a reason to feel happiness, letting it fill every cell of your body; and the tradition of not looking for a special place endlessly, if it already exists, and its name is Babel Gardens.

And probably, if Isaac Babel were to arrive in Odessa today, he would still be staying here, at 22 Zhukovsky Street. He would have chatted with guests at neighboring tables without any special intention, he would have ordered himself a strong black coffee and decided for sure that his new series of stories would begin exactly in Babel Gardens – in a place that, like the city itself: different, but still the same – real.

RESULT

Babel Gardens is a garden restaurant, where everything is woven from the light, radiant and loving mood of Odessa, once told by Isaac Babel. And literally from the name itself it is clear that the basis for the described positioning is formed by two key aspects: regional flavor and beauty of the garden.

These components are translated in the restaurant’s strategy: from the style of visual identity to interior decoration and the core idea of the cocktail list. They are designed to emphasize the uniqueness of the project, forming the integrity of an unforgettable for the guest sensations, emotions and memories.

Guides:
Creative director: Demi Fomchenkoff
Designer: Artem Vasylenko
Copywriter: Victoria Lember
Web design: Nikita Grinchuk
Chef: Andrey Dromov
Interior: NS architects
2021

Babel Gardens

RESULT

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