Soonta – Henley Beach Rd.

 

This is the third Soonta store Be Friendly has worked on, but the first brand new one. This compact shopfront joins the commercial kitchen / secret base which is the source of Soonta’s power; and serves as the base model and flagship for the expanding business.

With an eye to the future Be Friendly has created an efficient but playful interior which is flexible, scaleable and replicable. The fit out crams a lot into a little (much like a bánh mì), but cleverly manages to avoid clutter, both visual and physical.

From the very beginning of the project we were keen to avoid the clichés of many Vietnamese (or other Asian) ‘street-food’ inspired chains; no cone hats or rickshaws here. Dressing down a brand new space to look ‘street’ is disingenuous, and even disrespectful. Instead we’ve used simple, low cost materials to create a space which is humble, fun and fresh!