Wayne Finschi - Dining Designer

January 1999

"You shouldn't feel conscious about style and design when you are dining, just feel right and be comfortable,"says designer Wayne Finschi whose projects include breakfast favourite Sweethearts in Sth Melbourne; Pronto South Yarra; Kingston Hotel, Richmond; Stokehouse, St Kilda; Cafe Firenze, Carlton; St Kilda Pier Kiosk; Victorian Wine Cellars, Middle Park; Browns Brighton and Albert Park; The Pavillion Fitzroy Gardens; Chinta Blues, Il Fornaio, Prince Wine Store, Mink Bar (all part of the Prince of Wales Hotel, St Kilda) and, in the last month alone, Chinta Ria, Temple of Love in Sydney, Aquis at Williamstown and Jakarta in Carlton. Not long before that was the very impressive new Lemongrass Thai restaurant in Lygon St. Carlton.

Finschi started in window display at Sportsgirl and has many clients in the fashion world. His shop designs are all round Australia and New Zealand, even extending to Venice and Moscow for Coogi and the Elle Macpherson boutiques in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

Finschi works from offices in Cathedral Place adjoining those of his wife, Linda Britten, well known for her Bridal and After Five collections. His office features a drum stage where the former rock musician beats away and gets his best ideas.

"Across the lines from fashion to food is not that hard. Because it is all about creating an environment and as you get a bit more experienced you realise the sophistication of food and how it should be presented. It is about the old cliché, 'food theatre', which is what restaurants are all about. I have now done about 50 outlets from little holes in the wall, to things like the Stokehouse."

"The Stokehouse has stood the test of time (initial design 1992 and refurbished in 1996). I think the success of the project is if it is just right for what it has to do."

"The price range dictates the style, the material selection, the table sizes, the chairs, the lighting and the whole lot is based around knowing the market. Others try and do everything for everyone, they try and capture a bit of this a bit of that and it doesn't hold it together."For Finschi it's always a complex challenge to create a room which people "don't have to understand all the way, they just have to feel that it is alright."He is particularly pleased when they keep discovering new elements each time they visit, noticing little details each time as they relax more into the room.

"I have found you have to have people curious and interested, and they can't walk into a place and sum it up in one hit. That's a basic retailing lesson, you know that race track idea drawing people through and around, and having a point of sale there that holds them and takes them onto the next point. The restaurant is the same. Sitting in a spot and being able to see someone, or making sure that anyone sitting here is going to be able to see what is going on. They don't discover it in one hit and that is the important thing. You might do that with just a selection of material, a light in the right spot, bouncing off a wall or something it doesn't have to be a piece of art."