The Toff

Bio:

Opened April 2007, The Toff in Town follows in the footsteps of iconic Melbourne venues, Revolver Upstairs and Cookie and is the third collaboration between Camillo Ippoliti and architect Phillip Schemnitz. A rich, multi-layered venue, The Toff boasts a premier boutique performance space and a dedicated club/bar area with late night dining. Co-owners are Camillo and Tim Peach who purchased the Curtin House 8 years ago with a vision to fill it with long term tenants with shared and complementary interests. The Toff’s band room covers the full spectrum of Australian performing arts including music (from pop to country to ensembles), dance, comedy, and theatre, as well as touring international acts. Described as ‘a naughty room with an intimate cabaret feel’ the space will have a capacity ranging from 150 (fully seated) to 300 (standing only). A state of the art sound system has been installed and there’s a studio upstairs meaning bands can listen to the recording immediately after their performance. The second room, the club/bar or ‘carriage room’ features local DJs playing lush, dark and sexy sounds and has a train carriage running down the centre, made up of booths that can be made as private as desired by closing doors and pulling down blinds. Reservations will be available for the booths. The carriage room’s kitchen is under the direction of chef Karen Batson who has created a 70s inspired timetable menu as one might receive in a train’s dining carriage or on a long haul flight. Described by Camillo Ippoliti and Phillip Schemnitz as the third in a trilogy, The Toff represents an evolution in ideas about how large existing spaces can be divided up in a way that promotes intimacy while at the same time preserving the grand scale of the buildings which enclose them. They have worked from ideas to sketches and finally in collaboration with artists and graphic designers to create a rich multi layered venue. Issues of intimacy, proportion, scale, rhythm, repetition (of form and motif) and texture have been taken into consideration to create a particular and unique atmosphere. Located on the second floor of historic Curtin House (a floor above Cookie), The Toff has been designed to celebrate the natural beauty of the amazing building in which it is situated. In previous times home to an early branch of the Communist party, to a bookies club, and in the 1980s something of an artistenclave, Curtin House is situated on the north-west border of Chinatown. Both the building and its location in the city have informed the design in an abstract rather than literal manner. “This precinct contained the early red-light district of the Melbourne and clandestine brothels and opium dens lay hidden down back lanes, behind heavy, dark doors that opened onto narrow stairs leading to mazes of rooms high above street level. It must have been an exotic, dangerous and illicit area. Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that Melbourne is the home of many speak-easy style secret bars that are known by word of mouth and have succeeded to draw patrons without resort to signage, Revolver, Cookie and now The Toff In Town being prime examples.” Architect Phillip Schemnitz ..   I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)

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August 12, 2007

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