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Street art meets fine dining at Michelin star restaurant
When Christine Vayssade and James Wilkins opened Wilks restaurant on Chandos Road six years ago, the pair soon became taken as much with the city’s street art scene as its food and drink.
The restaurant gained a Michelin star in October 2014 and since then Christine, who runs the front of house operation while James is in the kitchen, has been looking at ways to combine graffiti with fine dining.
That has now most certainly been achieved with one entire wall of the restaurant recently covered in a mural of a whale and a coral-filled ocean by Harriet Wood, known as Hazard in the street art world.
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“It took us a few years to think about it and to find the courage to do it,” Christine told Bristol24/7 on the day the restaurant was reopening after a three-week summer break with its striking new wall.
“I wanted a main focus. And I wanted our guests to be able to come in and remember it. To be completely honest, I was a bit worried but I completely love it.”
Christine said that the traditional fine dining environment is evolving: “A fine dining restaurant can absolutely have its own style. We love street art. So why shouldn’t we have street art in our restaurant?”
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It took Harriet two days to complete the freehand spraycan work at Wilks, which was inspired by Christine and James’ love of the sea.
Harriet lived in Barcelona for two years before in March moving back to Bristol, where her street art can be seen in locations include UWE’s Glenside campus and above Caribbean Croft on Stokes Croft.
Climbing down a ladder and speaking on the phone from York where she is currently painting, Harriet said that the Wilks commission was “really good fun”.
She said: “It’s always great to work with nice people and Bristol is always the place to do that. Bristol is the best city in Europe for graffiti in my opinion.
“For the piece at Wilks, I wanted it to complement the interior if the restaurant which is quite muted but when I visited had a massive bunch of pink flowers, so I decided to go all-out with coral.
“I really like a challenge and this was really good fun.”
Hazard at work above Caribbean Croft
A Hazard piece on the Carriageworks
One of Hazard’s pieces at UWE Bristol’s Glenside campus
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