ireland by way of hong kong by way of britain by way of new york (whew!) – macau update 3.
just down the way from the old neptune restaurant at the venetian macau i encountered another cross-cultural theme within a theme, when i sat down to order a kilkenny at mcsorley’s ale house. this is where things get really convoluted, and further illustrate the interwoven, overlapping, confusing, postmodern nature of thematic design.
mcsorley’s resembles just about every other themed irish pub i’ve ever been in—and irish pubs are one of the oldest mainstays of thematic restaurant design in the united states. they run the gamut from authentic to downright plastic, and mcsorley’s feels more the former; in and of itself, a pleasant yet unremarkable venue.
wonderfully staged prop vignettes fill the second floor’s ledges, and each wall of the pub has a different theme. there is this scene for farm tools, for example.
and another for gentlemen’s sports of the british isles.
and also this one representing rail and steamship travel.
guinness advertising ephemera (typical at all other such pubs), along with poetic witticisms of ireland’s most famous drunks—i mean authors—cover the walls (typeset in large, green, gaelic script, of course). certainly out of place within the venetian, but not unheard of. not the giant leap i was required to make to enter the old neptune. that is, until i did my research.
this mcsorley’s ale house is a hong kong chain (with three locations, including macau), and is itself a thematic representation inspired by mcsorley’s OLD ale house in the east village, manhattan. this (original) mcsorley’s is quite famous as bars in america go—it opened in 1854 and was one of the last “men’s only” pubs, admitting women only by supreme court lawsuit in 1970, and counts abe lincoln, teddy roosevelt, boss tweed, and woody guthrie, among other luminaries, as former regulars. the place is simply legendary.
mcsorley’s old ale house in new york is not a themed venue; design-speaking, it developed slowly and organically over time, and only by virtue of its long history has come to represent “olde new york” in the eyes of its current patrons.
the mcsorley’s chain in hong knog was inspired by this classic bar, yet retains a much more traditional irish pub feel—actually, it feels more british than anything, from the beer selection to the fish ‘n’ chips served in newspaper. this anglicized expression—rather than the american of the source—comes, of course, from the long years of british rule over hong kong; such pubs here are a dime a dozen.
yet here at the venetian macau—inside the italian renaissance—i’m drinking a pint in ireland, by way of the hong kong mcsorley’s ale house chain, by way of britain’s colonization of the region, by way of mcsorley’s OLD ale house in new york city. and more than the beer is giving me a headache. am i in a thematic representation of an old english pub, an old irish pub, an old american bar, or an old kong kong pub? or all of these at once?
August 13th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Funny how those things connect. I’ve seen a McSorley’s in an airport recently. Can’t remember which though…
Regarding the prop vignettes, I don’t like those in this bar. I find the best prop vignettes tell a story. They speak to what happened before you walked in the room. These seem like (actually look like too) wall decorations. Like pictures, paintings, or wallpaper. They give you visual cues that you’re in an Irish Pub, but don’t tell you a story. Perhaps their designer should have had a vignette about making whisky (a still, bottle of grain, ect), or a bread making area (wheat, four, mill). Even a library vignette would work well.
There’s a bar in San Diego (The Field) that does this well. They have vignettes, but they fit the scene, you imagine that someone was just there, but you missed them.
These vignettes (especially mounted on a wall where no one could reach them) seem forced and artificial.
A great vignette should allude to the activity of the setting, not tell you about it.
August 13th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
i completely agree, these are nicely designed, but don’t do their job functionally. successful prop vignettes should be effortlessly, seamlessly atmospheric, and contribute to a sense of ‘place’ rather than the look of ‘display.’ it shouldn’t feel like a natural history museum—which these scenes do—it should feel lived in, like everybody stopped what they were doing and went home for the night…just before you arrived.