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From the editor

When we presented the 2020 Eat Drink Design Awards in November last year, I innocently thought the worst was over for our hospitality operators. They’d spent much of 2020 pivoting and pirouetting to new business models but, by the end of the year, it looked as though things were finally looking up. Alas, 12 months later, we have seen another year of lockdowns and operators clawing their way through a whole other set of challenges but, thankfully, we are now on the other side.

Despite the challenges, it was to our great surprise that we received a bumper number of entries to this year’s Eat Drink Design Awards. You can’t keep the hospitality industry down! It seems the prolonged periods of closure proved a good time to engage the design industry to create refreshed and new interiors. Our 2021 jury members – Sarah Cosentino (co-director of Studio Esteta), Anthony Gill (founder of Anthony Gill Architects), Katie McCormack (Melbourne restaurateur), Matt Shea (editor-at-large of Broadsheet, Brisbane) and me – were delighted to meet for our virtual judging day and to be transported to incredible dining, drinking and retail interiors across Australia. With many of us in lockdown, it was deliciously refreshing to “step into” a gorgeous gelato store, a cosy diner or a beachside pub. My sincere thanks to our jury, for not only attending an eight-hour-long Zoom (I’m sorry), but also for their intelligence, rigour and genial candour.

A huge congratulations to this year’s winners, and the commended and shortlisted entrants. I encourage all our readers to get acquainted with these projects, not only through the pages of this issue but in person. Find a venue close by, grab some friends and a round of Negronis, and raise a toast to all the incredible designers and operators in this year’s 2021 Eat Drink Design Awards, who have endured so much more than just the unveiling of a new interior.

Also inside this issue:

• Profile on Sydney-based object designer Jordan Fleming
• Aje Headquarters by Those Architects
• The Nicholson Galleries by Studio Plus Three

– Cassie Hansen, Editor, Artichoke

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