Saul Bass-inspired designs for new Heston Blumenthal restaurant

The restaurant will be sited at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 2, and the designs for the interior concept are inspired by the 1960s and ’70s Modern British menu.

Consultancy founder Afroditi Krassa says she researched the designs by looking at the work of Saul Bass – who designed Continental Airlines’ 1968 jet stream logo and United Airlines’ 1974 tulip logo – and the work of Danish furniture and interior designer Verner Panton. 

Inspiration was also drawn from film and television referencing the era, such as Mad Men and Catch Me If You Can.

Krassa says, ‘I wanted this restaurant not to feel like a compromise, as so many airport restaurants do, but a destination a place that has a real sense of arrival and a buzz of optimism running through its DNA, just like the food you are about to be served.’

Materials include dark timbers and marble, leather and brass detailing and Formica. Black and white patterns are contrasted with bright colours including dark and pale blues, orange and mustard.

At the entrance of the restaurant sits a propeller-shaped communal table, referencing the airport setting. The table uses a hexagonal pattern as a nod to the aerial view of Heathrow captured in 1955, showing the site as a six-sided shape.

Elsewhere at the front of the restaurant features include flexible tales and hard surfaces such as tiles and marbles, with an oversized bar serving cocktails and sharing plates.

The arrangement aims to create ‘pace’, according to The Perfectionists’ Café, with the front a ‘quick’ area and the main space ‘slower’, as a ‘more relaxed dining experience’ with softer finishes including observer booths where diners can see planes taking off and landing.

A theatrical kitchen is at the heart of the space with an exposed wood fired oven ‘ a first within an airport’, according to The Perfectionist’s Café. Within the kitchen, an ice cream parlour will serve Blumenthal’ s liquid nitrogen ice cream –another airport first, we’re told.

The Perfectionists’ Café will open on 4 June.