Dishoom Canary Wharf

The brief

Opened in November 2022, Dishoom Canary Wharf was the group’s first new London café in five years. Its founding myth is set in the Fort area of South Bombay, beside the Stock Exchange on Dalal Street, and Macaulay Sinclair brought it to life across a double height space of chrome, rattan, terrazzo and restored antiques.

At its heart is the Permit Room, where a marble and iroko bar stands with a show stopping back lit upper backfitting. Behind it the bar, Dishoom needed three of its stations along a single 9.4 metre run, supported by a 6.2 metre back of house and built to perform service after service.

The Dishoom station

At the very start of our relationship with Dishoom, we worked with the bar operations team to develop a standard Dishoom bar station, designed around their drinks menu, their service style and the way their bars run.

Designing it once, properly, is what has allowed each new opening to roll out smoothly since, whatever the shape of the room. It also means staff can be trained on the exact same station in head office, and each bartender can move between sites and find everything exactly where they expect it.

Designing the workstation

Each of the three mixer stations brings together ice wells, sliding chopping boards, sinks and double speed rails with blender platforms, alongside drained counters, shelving, heavy duty drawers, herb pots and a garnish and spice rail.

Till stations sit beside them with custom till shrouds and slim jim bins, so every element is within reach and nothing interrupts the flow of a busy service.