Villeroy & Boch in top restaurant with unusual design. Fixtures and tiles at Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Berlin. Nobelhart & Schmutzig – the name and concept of the new restaurant, with which restaurateur and multiple recipient of sommelier of the year, Billy Wagner decided go independent together with the cook Micha Schäfer after almost six years in Berlin. In February 2015, the long awaited start came for the innovative restaurant in Friedrichstraße 128, which consistently focuses on regional cuisine that is traditional and modern.
Villeroy & Boch provided the products for the bathroom fixtures and kitchen which is fully integrated in the eating area of the unusual restaurant: Villeroy & Boch made the counter top sinks, toilets and urinals with innovative functions and tiles in the colour concept of the interior design. "Villeroy & Boch and Nobelhart & Schmutzig fit together perfectly, both stand for innovative ideas and concepts that are ahead of their time," says Thimo Franke, head of commercial sales Germany at Villeroy & Boch. "As a partner for the international project business, we are experts at individual solutions for unique designs in top locations."
Brutally local
Nobelhart & Schmutzig was long considered the most famous unopened restaurant in Germany. The unusual name is inspired by an article about polo in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Billy Wagner: "The headline was: 'Nobel, hart und schmutzig' [Nobel, hard and dirty]. After thinking about it for a long time and making a few changes, we decided to go with the name. Nobel stands for uncompromising quality and the best products but without the classic luxury products like goose liver, caviare or lobster. Our unusual appearance is hard, which is not expected from this type of restaurant. And a pleasure-filled evening is always a little wild and dirty."
The general idea behind Nobelhart & Schmutzig is both simple and inspired. "We want to show the people who live in Berlin the various products available in the city and its surroundings and also support the people making these products in Berlin and its suburbs. We always work with seasonal products based on their availability. We are brutally local," says Wagner.
"Whatever nature does not offer cannot be put into the food. So we have to do without olive oil, pepper, nutmeg, citrus fruits, vanilla, cinnamon and of course chocolate," says Schäfer. Every day we offer a coordinated menu of ten courses, nothing more.
The virtual kitchen table
The chef plays a special role at Nobelhart & Schmutzig: He guides the guests through the evening by telling them about the menu sequence. Berlin designer Michael Sans worked with Gerold Bauer from the Edgar Fuchs company to design the interior of the restaurant and completely integrated the kitchen into the eating area. Twenty-six people can sit at a bar which rings the centre of the kitchen. "The bar is the place where everything happens, a virtual kitchen table in a sense," says Sans. The guests are at the centre of the action and they see who is preparing their meals. In addition to the bar, an oval table has space for up to 14 people. "Gerold Bauer and myself worked very closely together, which helped make the project a success. I was responsible for the interior design and the art direction and he was responsible for the kitchen systems and the building project," says Sans.
Modern clarity and cleanliness
When designing and equipping the kitchen and fixtures, Wagner, Schäfer and Sans focused on modern clarity and perfect cleanliness: "The guest experiences the kitchen first hand, and should also feel comfortable when going to the toilet. Both areas use products from Villeroy & Boch.
The surface mounted sinks from the Architectura professional system helped create strong design for the washing area in the male and female restrooms. The rimless DirectFlush Subway 2.0 toilets combine modern design with innovative functions: Instead of the usual flushing rim, they have an intelligent water flow and a special splash guard at the top of the bowl making sure the whole interior of the toilet bowl is flushed with-out water splashing out. The toilets are mounted with new ViConnect wall elements with matt chrome round flush plates. The urinals in the Architectura series are equipped with ViChange cartridges, which can be replaced easily and without any tools and without having to remove the urinal from the wall.
The walls and floors in the restrooms use Villeroy & Boch tiles from the Pro Architectura system concept: the walls have large glazed tiles in dark blue grey and the floor has matching unglazed, dark blue grey tiles. The tiles in the restaurant interiors integrate the colours from the overall concept. The tiles in the Colorvision series were chosen for their quality as space-shaping eye-catchers. In addition to the base tiles in Snowy White, the green tones of Light Softly Green, Dark Softly Green and Palm Green are harmoniously combined. The wall tiles come with CeramicPlus surface treatment to make them easy to care for and clean. The visible walls in the cold kitchen use the matching Colorvision tiles in Light Watery Blue and were also treated with CeramicPlus. In keeping with the concrete and scree surfaces, the kitchen floor uses tiles in the colour Graphite from the Unit Three series.
Billy Wagner says: "Villeroy & Boch is a German company and thus fits in perfectly with the regional concept. The bathrooms and tiles give our restaurant a special value and something timeless. Thus Villeroy & Boch was the first and only choice."