Movida

MoVida Restaurant is situated in the old Masonic Club in Melbourne. And more importantly now its on Hosier Lane one of the cities more eccentric lane, dominated by a legal graffiti installation which changes regularly.

Frank Camorra’s MoVida is the restaurant responsible for setting off Melbourne’s ongoing fixation with modern Spanish tapas. What started as a casual tapas bar has, over the years, developed into an in-demand comedor (dining room), and bookings, often months in advance, are now essential. The gap left for a more relaxed tapas bar has now been filled by sister restaurants MoVida Next Door and Movida Terrazza.

In addition Camorra took his local lane Hosier Lane in hand and turned what was a nighmare of grafitti into a design centre and outdoor installation.

Next Door is a small tapas and wine off shoot more casual than MoVida, obviously next door to Movida.

When the old sandwich bar next door closed it doors MoVida took the opportunity to create a new venue - a separate tapas bar that offers fast, fun dining suited to customers on their way to a show or looking for a quick bite. The space has been laid out to provide a sense of theatre and fun, and the bar is located to divide the interior into more intimate ‘front’ and ‘back’ areas. New windows and doors were added to the Hosier Lane side to establish a connection with the laneway, and a richly detailed shopfront window was added to the Flinders St façade to add life to the footpath. Spanish references were woven into the design with decorative tiling and ‘cookie cutter’ screens. The bar was referred to as ‘MoVida Next Door’ during the design stage to distinguish it from the original MoVida - and the name stuck. 

I feature this as the mix of restaurant, bars and art installation has really been beneficial to attract guests to this part of town and to create a unique position for Movida