Ramses - Madrid

Ramses - a bar, a restaurant and a club - is the most recent creation of a designer-hooligan - Philippe Starck. Expanding on three floors and opened just in December 2007, it outshines any of Starck's latest designs, including Bon restaurant in Moscow or a hotel Fasano in Rio de Janeiro.

Though, a bar occupies a large space in the centre of the first floor, do not rush to associate it with a lounge. Old guy Starck has found again an opportunity to play around with his favorite interior object - a chair. Scalps are split off not to garden gnomes at this time (as at St.Martins Lane hotel, London), but Oscar statuettes - at least gold-color faces seem to have exactly the same features as the famous Hollywood movie award. Someplace else guests may plop down on small rocking-chairs, with seats bearing cheeky posteriors' imprints! Despite this minor recklessness, Starck reveals his presence just in few more details there - leaving the overall ambience of the bar light and tastefully minimalistic.

The dance club, too, located in the basement floor, does not present much surprise to Starck's style connoisseurs - a small bar, dim lighting and an excellent nightclub atmosphere. The true Starck's extravaganzas start at the second floor restaurant, lavishly garnished with flaunting decadent elements. Pompous candelabra, eclectic sofas and an absolute mixture of styles in chair design - some being upholstered with black and white fur even. Also a bar design stirs a peculiar sensation, as you savor a drink sitting on a bar stool with broken off arm supports and a word "DEAD", as if with a designer's own thumb, daubed on its back...

Along with the main restaurant area there are two smaller dining-rooms - the biggest of which may seat no more than twenty guests. It's almost impossible not to put your nose in the air there, as an impressive El Greco copy stretches all over the ceiling. Another, the smallest one, meant for just ten people, features an autonomous kitchen, with a chef cooking according to particular wishes of the guests only.

And, yes, a visit of a restroom! As in most of Starck's restaurants, it is an experience in itself. A marble washbasin bears an amazing resemblance to a table used in forensic medicine, while a graceful swan neck stretches out instead of a water tap - much like the ones of the hotel Faena in Buenos Aires (priding in Starck's interior, too).

Cuisine, although seemingly disregarded (quite often being the case at Starck's restaurants), is outstanding, too. It features a creative approach in vast variety of international dishes, including Middle East hummus and beef tails.