55 Old Street, born in London, living in Bahrain

55 Old St.’s two partners, Maryam and Sean lived and studied in different areas of London and in two different fields — culinary and finance. The team’s main hangout and inspiration has always been the bustling and hip areas of East London -Shoreditch and Hoxton.

Inspired by the youthful spirit and hipster cultural revolution in East London (and across the world), and characterised by street art, music, repurposed industrial buildings combined with fresh and carefully sourced produce/products, quirky and nostalgic design — and most importantly a thriving dining and coffee scene, the two partners joined forces and decided to launch a new restaurant and social space, 55 Old St., in Bahrain.

Planting a piece of the East London scene into the cultural heart of Bahrain, 55 Old St. is located in Block 338 in Adliya — Bahrain’s dining and culture centre.

Introduction

The name and design ethos, covering the space, look & feel and furnishings of 55 Old St. have been inspired by the hipster trend and location found in East London. This area of East London has seen considerable regeneration over the last number of years with a burgeoning gentrification of buildings, combined with an edgy social scene and prominent rise in the art, design and digital revolution that has been recognised globally.

These influences and cultural dynamic were keenly felt when 55 Old St.’s owners worked and lived in the city of London, who were inspired to bring the strong flavour of the area and its energy to cosmopolitan Bahrain.

The current (seemingly unending) vogue for industrial and vintage styled interiors has greatly influenced the look, feel, and even something of the relaxed attitude, of this destination point for the young and young at heart.

Coupled with this is an over-arching desire to ‘unbrand’, have fun and be fluid with all customer communications. The image shared with customers will be ‘developmental’ — organic and even a little anarchic with its ever changing menu, music and art scene.

The distressed, ‘lived in’ look and feel has always been at the heart of the brand. One approach to continue in this visual way is to produce a stamp or set of stamps that can be used in combination across all customer consumables.

The idea here is to create a ‘kit of parts’ which owners and employees can use in a creative and free way to bring together aspects of 55 Old St., without the constraints of a ‘brand guideline’ document or ‘rule book’. At 55 Old St. we are guided by the spirit of the brand, rather than rules themselves.

Launching the Brand and Restaurant

In its marketing and PR, communication should be fun, relatively cheeky and borderline rude, with the use of texting/social media terms, hashtags and abbreviations, while being relevant to news/events/current affairs. 55 Old St. opened its doors on the 20th of August 2017, and launched its full menus by mid- September. Social media influencers were invited for an exclusive and intimate “Chef’s Table” where the owners serve their order and explain the concept of the restaurant. “Dice of Luck” is another PR activation to celebrate the launch. The waiters present a pair of dice along with the menu to the customers, who will be requested to roll the dice and if the numbers match, they will get a free drink. The purpose of the activation is to introduce a new concept to customers that will create a buzz and encourage spreading the word.