Saigon Sensation: Bambino by Looks Generous.

Holistic and hedonistic, a highway to escaping the human and embracing the heavens, Saigon’s newest hospo-hotspot ‘Bambino’ suggests the genesis of an ‘intoxicating micro-world’, as Melbourne-based design studio Looks Generous puts it. With (what one imagines to be) an ever-revolving playlist of Pino D’Angelo, Cerrone, Saigon Supersound and anything mixed by Daniele Baldelli, Bambino is guided by the sensory, all while harnessing the highly designed, brilliance of the eighties. Similarities can be drawn to the set design of Mr. Saito’s subconscious in Christopher Nolan’s Inception, with a heatwave of hues and strategic lighting suggesting a space of limbo, a dreamscape escape from the real world.

Within the 476-square-meter footprint, the team at Looks Generous have managed to saturate every corner with intention, veiled by a pièce de résistance, an aluminium waffle ceiling that encompasses the marriage of eighties-era Italo-Disco to cultural hotbed Ho Chi Minh City in one fell swoop. Here, reference is made to prominent Italian DJ Baldelli’s nightclub ‘Cosmic’, established on the shores of Lake Garda in the early eighties.

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A further nod to this Italian scene is evident in the Amalfi-esque orange candy stripe outdoor seating that abuts the main dining room. After 10 pm, we see Bambino transform to ‘Bar Bino’, the gridded ceiling transcending the static and shifting to the dynamic with a lighting program that animates the dance floor (the disco-mirrored bathroom tiling hints at this transformation also).

An inception network of custom-designed furniture pieces and repeat-silhouettes highlight the influence of mid-century architect Carlo Scarpa, as Looks Generous rejects the ornate and displays a connate capacity for detail and design. From the red-dirt dyed concrete bar through to the crimson carpet, we follow the balmy colour spectrum from ochre-tinted glazing, bronze mirrors, stained oak timber panels right through to the softness of the flax linen wallpaper and cool, brushed stainless steel partitions that divide the drinking from the dining and eventually, dancing.

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Clay-coloured banquettes and adjacent geometric upholstered chairs are backed by the steel partitions, quietly corresponding with the bronze ribbon that wraps around the octagonal marble tables. Geometries are evident everywhere, as the tiling pattern of the staircase upon entry becomes the perfect prologue to what lies within, the seemingly Shoji-screen ceiling a foreshadowing of the Italo-disco grid floating so notably above the room.

With a bartender, sommelier and head chef all hailing from renowned Melbourne venues such as Above Board, Carlton Wine Room and Poodle, the premium-casual approach to dining so evident in the Australian hospitality scene has clearly made its way across the waters. With the Leftovers Group client facilitating this particular mise en place, Looks Generous pushed the envelope just far enough to create something entirely sensational in Saigon.

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[Images courtesy of Looks Generous. Photography by Phu Dao.]