Western Living Magazine
Before & After: How This Coal Harbour Townhouse Became an Artful Urban Retreat
6 Spaces That’ll Make You Feel at One with Nature
5 Butler’s Pantries That Will Give You Some Serious Kitchen Envy
6 of Our Fave Salmon Recipes
4 Buzz-Worthy Recipes Every Coffee Lover Needs to Try
Bold Wines to Go With Coffee-Spiked Recipes
Why You Should Spend Your Next Break In Winnipeg
Vancouver Island’s Ladysmith Mixes Small Town Charm with Big City Culture
BC’s Best-Kept Culinary Destination Secret (For Now)
Wildflower Mercantile’s New Space is Growing More Than Flowers—It’s Growing Community
Spring Refresh: 10 Must-Have Picks to Elevate Your Home Style in 2025
Our Favourite Pieces from the New 2025 Ikea Stockholm Collection
Enter Western Living’s 2025 Designers of the Year Awards—DEADLINE EXTENDED
PHOTOS: Party Pics from the 2025 Western Living Design 25 Awards Party
Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Western Living Design 25 Awards
This new space from Studio Roslyn blends hotel bar nostalgia with modern style.
When designers and their clients put their heads together to come up with the perfect space, they usually start with the basics: aesthetic, materials and so on. But the plan for Superflux Cabana, a new Victoria restaurant from Vancouver's cult favourite Superflux Beer, started with a playlist, a few photos, and a famed American journalist.
We talked about what induces the feeling of escapism, remembers Kate Snyder, principal of Studio Roslyn. A lineup of songs (including Mondo Bongo by Joe Strummer and The Mescalaros and tunes from Jungle and Sault) brought about vacation memories for the Roslyn team as well as Superflux founders Matt Kohlen and Adam Henderson.
Images of folks gambling in Las Vegas in the 60s and 70s stirred up the nostalgia, and they started thinking about the sort of place where Hunter S. Thompson might have had a drink. We went down a bit of a rabbit hole, says Snyder.
The 115-seat restaurant feels cozy and tropical, like a chic but casual hotel lobby or an old-school watering hole. Snyder describes the space's low ceilings as a bit tricky, design-wise, but the team decided to embrace them in full with rotary cut oak panels and different shades of teal and blue paint. In a space this small, the ceiling is kind of the most prominent thing, says Snyder, so our team considered the ceiling design as much as any other surface.
Different textures (the abstract tropical carpet, bent wood pendant lights, and woven drapery) provide a beautiful design element, but also a functional noise-controlling quality. An open-concept space like this can act as an echo chamber, so we wanted to address that, explains the designer.
Earth-toned custom vinyl flooring mirrors the ceiling's wood detail, and the restaurant's main focal pointthe bar, of courseis U-shaped and paneled with fabric. We drew inspiration from old-school, smoke-filled whisky bars, says Snyder.
Cheeky custom art, including a Birth of Venus painting (with Venus modestly dressed in a branded shirt) dots the walls, and a stack of Hunter S. Thompson books lies by the banquette seating. The banquettes plus bar stools, lounge chairs and patio seating add up to plenty of options for guests to settle in.
My favourite part about this space is you feel like you could be anywhere, says Snyder. “It’s warm, rich and sophisticated as much as it is quirky and playful.
READ MORE: A Crush-Worthy Dry Bar in Vancouver
Are you over 18 years of age?
