Intrepid Individuality – Dolly by Genesin Studio

Materialised by Genesin Studio, Dolly is an impactfully curated wine bar and eatery that captures the attention of its patrons through its intrepid individuality. Punctuating Unley’s slew of snazzy watering holes and dining destinations, Dolly offers a standout experience in inner-Adelaide suburbia. Presenting an offbeat interior that lends itself to sophisticated banquets and pulsing late-night discos alike, the setting has been masterfully affected to fuse welcoming softness with dauntless drama.

Embracing the glazed corner frontage of its ground-floor home, the bar sits at the northern base of a bustling apartment block on Unley Road, drawing in residents and passers-by with glimpses of the intriguing scene within. Polished and glossy planes commune beautifully with a curiously crumpled concrete bar, and cosy booth seating is framed by windowpanes. Recounting the “creation from scratch as a blank canvas,” Ryan Genesin, Director of Genesin Studio, reveals that he and his team ultimately “drew inspiration from the site’s bones, which resonated a brutalist and futurist design aesthetic. This started to inform the design process and material selection, which was thrown into the mix of our de-sign brief to create something new for the area.”

Materialised by Genesin Studio, Dolly is an impactfully curated wine bar and eatery that captures the attention of its patrons through its intrepid individuality.

An uncommon encounter indeed, even the first sliver previewed upon entry divulges the immersive spatial identity that awaits. Journeying through the threshold fringed by robust brick walls reveals falling curtains that shroud private seating, as sightlines dash across sleek and organic surfaces to be reflected back by a chrome-mirrored ceiling. A demure gesture to the iconic disco ball, Dolly’s lustrous roof foretells the dynamic nature of the bar that entices exploration from day to night.

Serving as practical elements while also being integral to the palette, the reflective ceiling and perforated timber wall panels possess acoustic properties to cushion sound as the volume turns up for after-dark parties. The smooth walnut panelling wears its grain with sophistication, providing a tonally delightful companion to the warm brick-tiled banquette seating, skirting and floor below.

A demure gesture to the iconic disco ball, Dolly’s lustrous roof foretells the dynamic nature of the bar that entices exploration from day to night.

Meeting the organic tactility with a throaty grit, concrete has been judiciously included to render the walls that retain sweepings lathered strokes and moulding the in-situ conrete-formed bar that becomes Dolly’s focal feature. Poised in its interplay of a rutted and rippled form with a sleek burnished top, the bar invites patrons to pull up a stool and feel comfortably rooted by its monolithic presence.

Fluently imparting a unique sense of lively calm, Ryan expresses the importance of such exacting tactility in Dolly’s design. “We love texture on our projects!” Texture, be it rough or smooth, is used with a “right-time, right-place approach – and not simply designing for the sake of designing.” Describing what he affectionately refers to as “Dolly-details”, Ryan says that “the velvet banquette seats and perforated stool upholstery are all micro-details of the space. The floor really adds a dimension, but so too do the walls and ceiling, which all support the bar in a salty-sweet kind of way.”

Gently outfitted, Dolly is finished with the inclusion of a soft, woven tapestry padding the wall, a smattering of ceramics by local artists and illumination from eccentric forms.

Gently outfitted, Dolly is finished with the inclusion of a soft, woven tapestry padding the wall, a smattering of ceramics by local artists and illumination from eccentric forms. Light diffuses across the space as it peeks from under the bends of blackened steel and walnut sconces and pours over punters from chrome can lights embedded in the ceiling. The beauty of the setting breathes freely, with insertions that have been sparingly assembled to produce resonant impact through their collective presence.

Ryan remarks that “Dolly’s unique, one-off space really has a sense of intrigue when you are there. Chef and owner Sam Worrall-Thompson has fine-tuned the food and booze offering to serve up a great experience. The setting is immersive and has a great sense of theatre, lending itself to easy day vibes, which get ramped up into DJ-fuelled music nights.” Individually bold yet tempered in togetherness, Dolly’s dynamic mix of materiality achieves harmonisation in hue and tactility to create a generously grounded interior that sets the stage for breezy feasting and high-spirited merriment.