Vezene restaurant is a modern day, farm to table bistro focusing on doing things a bit differently than everybody else. Beef and seafood rule the menu while an all-steel bolted wood brick oven coexists with induction cook tops and a red vintage Berkel meat slicer in what seems to be the harmonious culinary marriage of tradition with technology. The restaurant is strategically positioned opposite the Hilton hotel, 3 minutes walking distance from the Evangelismos Metro Station, overlooking the century old urban gardens of Ilisia Park. Secluded from the city noise, while centrally located on the outskirts of posh Kolonaki district, Vezene enjoys picturesque views of the Lycabettus Hill and the St. Isidoros church.
The space is designed by chef-restaurateur Ari Vezene with primary objective to create a crystal clear identity of informal, unpretentious and unobtrusive elegance. It features an indoor dining room and an outdoor all-glass terrace staged on top of a secret under glass greenhouse. The colors of the sand otherwise the perfect Beige monopolize the interiors in the form of authentic natural Italian cow skin leather, oak wood surfaces and most importantly hand applied eco friendly Persian Khorasani grained texture materials. The owner firmly believes and supports the need for authenticity and originality. While construction crews consisted of a few, hopeless romantic, individual, artisan hand crafters, the materials used were hand selected and privately imported from various parts of the world. Farrow & Ball was used for the ceiling surfaces, Ono Mutina for floor tiles and the very dark and sexy bathroom was also dressed in “Ono” Mutina mosaic featuring the unique “One” bathroom sink by designers Matteo Thun and Antonio Rodriguez for Rapsel.
Furniture was designed by the owner himself while architectural lighting was assigned to Rania Macha and Mariza Galani with sole purpose to seamlessly import the urban nightscape of Athens within the dining room. The central neon luminaire results from the imaginary orange lines parallel to the road while the wall pendant lamps represent the old fixtures of the Greek Public Power Corporation that are nowadays found in less central streets of Athens. Stylizing these fixtures and keeping their core lines, a 3D metal grid was created, surrounding the incandescent lamp with the differentiated linear tungsten. The dimmed filament adds an extra orange color, giving the customer the illusion of dining under the streetlights.
Vezene is currently designing a gastro pub and kitchen lab in the restaurant’s lower level, which is assigned to Thomas Doxiadis & Associates architectural office while lighting designers Rania Macha and Mariza Galani will handle the luminaire side. Interesting to know is that 60% of the restaurant has been allocated to the kitchen and not the dining room as it is a known fact that every single dish served is made on the spot from scratch. Last but not least, an in-house dry aging meat cooler holds the keys to the depth of flavor the owner’s aims to relay.
