Tristan Hay Design works on Beard to Tail restaurant

Beard to Tail is being developed by the team behind Lewis Carroll-inspired cocktail bar Callooh Callay, which is also in Shoreditch.

Tristan Hay Design, which worked on a bar design at Calooh Callay, was appointed in November to work on Beard To Tail and charged with turning the warehouse into a restaurant of 70 covers with a separate delicatessen area.

The space had been in a state of disrepair and the consultancy first needed to make the building workable, ‘which meant getting through a lot of red tape’, says consultancy founder Tristan Hay.

As there were ‘no existing features’ Hay says the consultancy is trying to bring out ‘an industrial look,’ adding breeze-block walls and creating a style which Hay describes as a ‘more glamorous version of a classic Shoreditch look.’

Reclaimed Victorian flooring will be laid throughout and reclaimed geometric flooring in the deli area will be offset with ‘lots of concrete and galvanised steel conduits,’ says Hay.

From the entrance, the front section deli will give way to an evening bar area and beyond this, through a letterbox opening, the restaurant, where a chandelier centre-piece will hang, and finally the kitchen.

This has the effect of creating ‘continuous daytime and evening sightlines, all the way from the street, to the chandelier, and as the view narrows, to the kitchen,’ says Hay.

Beard to Tail, a literal translation from the French Barbe à queue, will offer a largely carnivorous menu, using the entire animal – from beard to tail, when it opens in October.