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Case study · Restaurant fit-out

Kuro.
An old Notting Hill bank,
rebuilt to be eaten in.

A small, tired unit on Uxbridge Street turned into a coffee shop, brunch room and dinner spot in one. Taken back to the bones and rebuilt over a single phase, with a fully fitted commercial kitchen behind the swing door.

Kuro Eatery, Notting Hill — finished interior with bar and dining room
Client
Kuro Eatery
Sector
Hospitality & F&B
Location
Uxbridge Street, Notting Hill, W8
Scope
Restaurant fit-out & commercial kitchen
Status
Trading
The brief

An empty bank, with one shot at opening.

Kuro came to us with a small, dated unit on the corner of Uxbridge Street. The previous tenants had left a yellow shell with a cracked tile floor, one tired air-con unit, and very little else worth keeping.

The plan was a calm, Japanese-leaning room serving breakfast, lunch and dinner from one small site, with the look of somewhere that had quietly been there for years. Soft white plaster, warm oak, dried grasses. One phase, one programme, ready to trade.

Before

What we started with.

Yellow walls, a cracked tile floor, surface-mounted services and a single AC unit. A shell, in fairness, but only just.

The approach

Built around one piece of architecture.

The front of house was rebuilt around a single piece of architecture: a hand-finished micro-cement bar with the Kuro wordmark debossed into the front, set against warm oak joinery, dried grasses and soft white walls. Every shelf, banquette, table and stool was made for the space.

Behind the swing door is a properly kitted commercial kitchen, with full extraction, gas, three-phase electrics, fryer, combi oven, salamander and cold drawers. Compliant, safe, and laid out so the kitchen team can actually work in it on a busy service.

Outside, a quiet repaint and a single line of downlights cleaned up the corner of Uxbridge Street, with KURO EATERY · BREAKFAST · LUNCH · DINNER painted straight onto the gable wall.

The room

Bar at the centre, light at the edges.

Micro-cement, oak, plaster and pampas. Every fixture made on site to the millimetre.

Behind the door

It does coffee. It also does dinner.

A full commercial kitchen, properly serviced, properly safe. Gas, three-phase, extraction, the lot.

On the corner

Open daily on Uxbridge Street, W8.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, in a calm corner of Notting Hill.

Kuro Eatery exterior on the corner of Uxbridge Street, W8
They handed us a room we could open in. Calm, finished, every detail thought through.
Jacob van Nieuwkoop · Owner, Kuro Eatery

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