Hoxton Grill
The Client
The Hoxton Grill, surrounding an open terrace within the trendy new-build Hoxton Hotel in London’s Shoreditch, has all the natural ambience of an all-day brasserie/bistro.
Operating independently from Sinclair Beecham’s 205-bedroom four-star hotel, Hoxton Grill owners Simon Wright and John Pallagi have created a perfect restaurant and bar combination that follows on naturally from their acclaimed portfolio of contemporary chic Room Restaurants, founded in 2000. The 100-cover restaurant offers a blend of American steak and Parisian bistro classics.
Adding to the ambience throughout the large open-plan ground floor, guitar and film soundtrack-inspired music are sensitively programmed and delivered by iPod and Denon 6-disc multi CD player.
Project Brief
Based nearby, audio system designers and installers Sound Division Group have a long association with Simon Wright’s ventures. Here they were again called on to enhance the existing background system – fitted when the hotel was erected on the site of the former car park.
Says Sound Division Group Managing Director David Graham, “The challenge here was to interface with a perfectly acceptable background system but augment the feature areas at the bar and front lounge, where the DJ booth is set up. At the same time, we provided system equalisation and protection via a dbx 2031 31-band graphic EQ/limiter and used a Cloud Z8 zoner to route the signal source.”
System Solution
In the front lounge, JBL Control 29 speakers face out onto Great Eastern Street like sentries, complementing the Penton 100v line speakers providing the background sound. Out in the 40-seat terrace, Sound Division Group have specified four of Work’s cost-effective weatherproof Studio 30 speakers, one in each corner.
Restaurant manager Richard Moore, formerly at nearby Shish, says that the Hoxton Grill will not only service hotel guests but provide a much-needed facility for the thriving local community from 7am. This includes live DJ sessions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, operating alongside a daily-rotating playlist. To facilitate this, Sound Division has provided a plug-in point and highly-specified DJ console, complete with portable flight case. The equipment includes industry-standard Technics SL-1210 turntables and Denon DN-D4500 twin CD players, Allen & Heath XONE:62 mixer, and Alesis powered DJ monitor.
Sound Division project manager Elliot Patterson sectioned the big open space, designed by Gabriel Murray, into three separate sound zones to maximise coverage. Murray’s funky décor epitomises contemporary cool, with clean lines, exposed brick and wood tones complemented by vibrant modern art wall hangings by local artists.
Last Word
David Graham concluded, “It’s great to be working again with Simon Wright, with whom we have had a relationship stretching back to his days as F&B manager at the Sanderson Hotel.” The entrepreneur has since used SDG as his preferred audiovisual supplier on virtually all his projects, including the recent Room restaurant at the Trials Hotel in Liverpool.
Hoxton Grill
