Hamburg’s The Table restaurant and companion Puzzle Bar are the present manifestation of three-star Michelin chef Kevin Fehling and partner Dennis Ilies’ ambition ‘to set new conceptual standards in gastronomy’. Complementing gourmet food and cocktails, customer experience and ambience rate highly in their vision – as evidenced by the recent installation of Yamaha audio systems.
One priority of their mission is the quality, taste and composition of the ingredients in the dishes. ‘The other is to inspire the guest with a sensory experience – what they see, hear and feel, as well as taste,’ Fehling says. ‘From meeting them at the entrance to the feel of sitting in the chair and at the table, the ambience created by the sound, light and temperature. From the first sentence that the service waiter utters to the last, it should all connect on an emotionally subconscious level, in a way that the guest does not even think about it.’
The centrepiece of The Table is a long, wooden table that winds its way through the ground floor, echoing the river Elbe’s passage through Hamburg. Being fully booked a year in advance, Fehling’s passion and concept for The Table has delivered a spectacularly successful, ultra-high quality gastronomic experience.
For some time he considered opening a second restaurant in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin or maybe Paris or London. But Fehling’s ambition and hunger for knowledge is reflected in his former sous chef, Dennis Ilies, and was a source of fresh inspiration. ‘Dennis was determined to follow his instincts – I felt such creativity and passion coming from him that opening another concept together made complete sense,’ Fehling says. ‘We share a passion for cocktails, so we worked out how to combine our talents and create extraordinary cocktails that have not existed before. It was the same approach as The Table, but in liquid form.’
Fehling and Ilies experimented with cocktails inspired by food dishes from The Table, their attention to detail so intense that he admits to working on an ice cube ‘for about a year-and-a-half.’ They named the new venture the Puzzle Bar.
‘Finding the symbiosis between food and cocktails was the first piece of the puzzle,’ Fehling says. ‘The second piece was, as with The Table, putting together the different elements to create a complete sensory experience for the customer. The third was the cocktails, which are puzzles in themselves. You take the various pieces, put them together and transform them into perfection in the glass.’
The Puzzle Bar is located five minutes from The Table, which is also a short distance from Hamburg’s cruise ship terminal where Fehling has another restaurant, The Globe.
‘We run a shuttle service: from restaurant to bar and from bar to restaurant. It is all designed to make sure that every part of the customer experience is of the highest quality,’ Fehling says.
‘For me, it has always been extremely important to have goals. I want to inspire gastronomes to have confidence in their own creativity, belief in the future and to set goals. It is not always easy, but it is worth it. I have always believed that, if I do not set myself goals, I cannot achieve them.’
Both The Table and Puzzle Bar feature discreet Yamaha audio systems, designed by Yamaha Music Europe’s Gerrit Carstens to blend into the overall customer experience. In The Table, background music is delivered by four pairs of VXS8 surface-mount loudspeakers powered by an MA2120 mixer/amplifier and PA2120 power amplifier.
The Puzzle Bar features an MTX3 matrix processor and XMV8280 multichannel power amplifier, with six VXS5 surface-mount loudspeakers in the main bar area, supported by three HS8S powered subwoofers integrated into the bar with custom housings and covers. Two VXC5F ceiling speakers cover the rest rooms.
On the outdoor balcony, eight further VXS5s have been hidden in a waterproof compartment at the base of specially-designed plant pots, allowing decorative plants to provide visual ambience, while high-quality music plays from grilles in the pots below.
More: www.yamaha.com
