In pictures: Dissecting Drake style
How the details of Drake One Fifty help create the brand's specific atmosphere
With the restaurant Drake One Fifty, Jeff Stober is taking his Drake Hotel brand into a very different environment. But it borrows the hotel’s attention to culture and a bit of its loose, Queen West atmosphere: the retro-style photo booth here resembles one at the hotel, and a mural (at right) by the artist Douglas Coupland is incorporated into the space.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Retail, under the name Drake General Store, has been part of the Drake brand: the restaurant includes a “shop” housed in this large vintage cabinet, which came from an antique fair in Connecticut.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Art installations, programmed by the Drake curator Mia Nielsen with Canadian work, are carefully integrated into the design. Starting in this position near the front door: Cuppa Cups by Nova Scotia artist Eleanor King.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
This pergola inside the dining room, designed and built by Toronto artisans the Brothers Dressler, includes several types of wood, including timbers salvaged from Georgian Bay. Its different construction techniques evoke moments in architectural history; this sort of design-about-design goes back to the postmodernism of the 1980s. “It came out of a very philosophical conversation,” Mr. Stober says, among him, his designers and curator. The site of Drake One Fifty “was a postmodern office building, and we wanted to speak to that postmodern moment.... We have to satisfy ourselves.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
The text-based mural above the bar is by the distinguished Toronto artist Micah Lexier. The shelves above the bar are a trademark of the interior designer Martin Brudnizki, who has also worked on the Soho House private clubs.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A large chalkboard (another design move borrowed from The Drake Hotel) is full of mathematical equations. A cork ceiling and a vaguely industrial light fixture recall the hotel, and evoke some unspecified moment in the past.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail