Le Super Qualité

The recently opened Le Central food hall reunites 25 local gastronomic icons, and has become a must-see in the creative and diverse city of Montreal. The Super Quality brings an East Asian cuisine to this gourmet mix with its authentic dishes from Southern India.

This is MRDK’s second project with Le Super Qualité, after having designing its flagship restaurant in Montreal’s Villeray neighborhood in 2016. The brief was to design a kiosk that would be a contemporary take on something authentically Indian, but with a completely different pallet than the flagship. The use of a similar design approach and style enables the two spaces to harmonize despite their differences.

The design direction became very clear after learning that Mumbai has the second largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the world after Miami. Inspiration was drawn from Art Deco’s rounded forms, contrasting colours, and ornamentation. The Super Qualité kiosk appears as if it has reappropriated one of these old Mumbai buildings transforming it into a streetside snack bar.

The kiosk is wrapped in corrugated steel siding that is hand-painted a bright yellow to quickly capture the attention of the many visitors of the food hall. A long stainless steel bar can host nearly a dozen customers on custom bar stools cantilevering off the stepping foot rest. Ordering is done through an opening in metal bars, reminiscent of the liquor stores in Eastern Asia. Suspended over the bar are tiffin containers repurposed as pendant lights, a design element that unifies the restaurant’s two locations.

Design: Ménard Dworkind Architecture & Design
Photography: David Dworkind