Concept and interior design for a worldwide chain of restaurants whose menu is based around one of the defining ingredients of Italian cuisine: buffalo mozzarella DOP.

Labics have worked with Obika (from the Neapolitan word obiccà or ‘here it is!’) to design all of their mozzarella bars, creating a basic concept to reflect the brand which can then be easily adapted to suit each new location and context. The design has been developed to showcase and celebrate the high quality, fresh, artisanal Italian food products for which the restaurants are known. Large glass vitrines are used to display mozzarella and other ingredients, while overlapping black and brushed steel surfaces are used to create partitions, wall coverings and counters to define the space. Diffuse lighting is concentrated in just a few points, highlighting the glass display cases and sitting behind fissures in the steel planes to create a backlit effect.

These defining elements are easily repeatable and recognisable, and rather than repeating a common furnishing scheme, provide a standard toolkit which is used to suit the specific characteristics of each restaurant.