A Honed Focus – Hazel by The Stella Collective
Discerningly restrained, Hazel celebrates the existing architectural detailing and heritage of the building it sits within, while narrowing a honed focus on the dining experience. The Stella Collective collaborates closely with The Mulberry Group to reimagine a sense of glamour and drama, delivered through classical and timeless gestures in one of Melbourne’s culinary hubs.
Amongst the sensory overload of sounds and smells from its open kitchen, Hazel is imagined as part performance, part immersion. In its Flinders Lane siting, the restaurant and bar are well located amongst its neighbouring culinary offerings, adding to the diversity of the area while enlivening an existing architectural gem. The strip is known for its array of destination venues offering unique and identifiable experiences, allowing Hazel to sit comfortably, as a welcomed addition. As a collaboration between The Stella Collective and operator The Mulberry Group, the concept stems from a deliberately pared-back and restrained approach, where the focus is the food, wine, and the ceremony of the dining experience.
Built by MPA, Hazel taps into a 1970s glamour through nuanced metal expressions, adding subtle adornments to the otherwise restrained palette. Muted neutrals create the base, and timber adds an element of warmth, while glass and natural stone add a polished touch, reinforcing a sense of the minimal. The open kitchen sits lengthways across the façade, offering a preview to the bystander of the show taking place inside. The intentional openness allows the visitors to be brought into the process of cooking through heat, sound and smells. This was a deliberate, key part of the experience of the space. Bar seating surrounds the open kitchen and the bar, further immersing the visitor into the inner workings of Hazel.
Sitting within the history of the existing building, the eatery and bar is inserted with considered caution, allowing the detail and crafted elements to be seen as an integrated part of the space. The approach to maintaining the generous lofted ceilings and proportions is carried through into the spatial planning and select placement of booth banquette seating along the outer edges. Views through the restaurant out to Flinders Lane and likewise inward are about an enlivening and connection to place. Through a grounded approach, the space is conceived from the familiar and is intended to connect patrons to both the location, the city and to the dishes in front of them.
Hazel brings together the history of the building with a celebration of dining through an engagement of the senses. The Stella Collective has created a beautifully classic and enduring space, reconnecting to the surrounds and providing an enticing destination that invites attention through subtleties.
