A Taste for the Eclectic

A chat with Brenda Bent

By Shelley M. Black

hf_Bent2As two of the country’s most iconoclastic designers, Brenda Bent and her partner Karen Gable are getting rave reviews for their eclectic restaurant designs. Talking to Brenda Bent as she’s on the fly gives us a glimpse into her whirlwind life. Bent is always on the go—whether she’s designing a new restaurant, popping in to see her husband, Chef Susur Lee, on a television set, cooking for eight every Sunday night or taking the whole family, including her three sons and their girlfriends, on a trip. But, it seems, “whirlwind” is the way she prefers it.

Q. For many years you designed a successful women’s clothing line, Bent Boys, with your partner Lauren Boy. When and why did you decide to go into interior design?

Brenda: I went to Ryerson and took my degree in fashion. Today, by the way, I would recommend going to school in London or New York. Lauren and I did well because we got in with Kashiyama, so we became friends with Marc Jacobs, and Gautier was there too. People thought we were cool, which was lucky. We would dress Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington and everyone talked about us.

We stopped designing Bent Boys because both of us started to have kids and it was getting too much. My design business started a while later when we decided to renovate my husband’s restaurant, Susur, and I asked Karen Gable (previously a fashion designer with the label Zapata) to help. The business mushroomed from there. We did Luckee as well, and today we’re working on a restaurant at the airport.

Q.  You’ve been called iconoclastic. Is that true?

Brenda:  That’s 100 per cent correct. In the very beginning, we did sweaters with hands folded together on them praying that said, “Jesus loves me.” Some people didn’t like them and others thought they were cool. For me, it was the tension that I liked.

When I go to Hong Kong with Susur, I see women wearing head-to-toe Chanel—there’s no personal input. In my design work, I find it fun to figure out how to make designs look better by adding something unusual, but beautiful. It’s all in the balance.

Q. What are your favourite pieces in your own home?

Brenda: I love our red velvet couch in the front room and the hot tub in the basement. And I love my son’s bathroom—it looks like a Turkish hammam. There’s also a stunning window that runs up the staircase that we all love. Because I designed most of our home,  there’s very little I don’t like. My bathroom is pink onyx. In the kitchen you will find the beams exposed. Most people cover them up, but that’s the iconoclast in me. I live across from a park, after all.

Q. You have a very close family. You and Susur have been together for 30 years, and he is one of Canada’s most celebrated chefs. Now two of your sons are in the food/restaurant business. How does your family influence your work?

Brenda: Susur inspires me not just creatively, but also in the intensity and amount of time he dedicates to his work. He’s always trying something new. Just last night he came home and said, “We’re changing the menu again.” People ask Susur, “How come you have so many restaurants?” That’s just who he is, and he checks on all three every night. He really works so hard.

Now my kids are energetically caught up in the day-to-day of the business, too. Their involvement is definitely a focus for Susur and me.

hf-interview-BrendaBentQ. How do you keep up with it all?

Brenda: My whole life is about being active. I believe I’m fortunate to be busy and that being busy is a privilege. Susur and I like to spend time travelling with the kids and their girlfriends. Last week we took them all to Scottsdale and then to Florida…we’re a travelling tribe.

Also, I like to cook and plan family meals together. I get up on Sundays and prepare all day. Last night I had dinner for 15.

Q. Was your focus on designing restaurants purposeful, or did you fall into it?

Brenda: One of the things I believe is that you tend to end up where there is a need. We started with Susur’s restaurant and then the owner of Thompson hired us, and it’s just kept on going. The fact that I’m married to Susur is a plus and a minus: Sometimes people don’t call us because they think that Bent and Gable only works for him, which isn’t true.

Q. How is the design mindset different in home versus commercial interiors?

Brenda: For me, the clear difference between the two is that when you’re at home, it’s about personal comfort and lifestyle. I really don’t have to worry about the same thing when I design a restaurant, because people don’t stay for too long and don’t need to call it their own. At home, it’s really about function and expressing genuine curiosity and the enjoyment of things that mean something to you.

For instance, I have a beautiful collection of birds in glass cages that pleases me. Susur has a huge number of cookbooks. My kids call me a hoarder, but I say I’m a collector. Yet our home is perfectly designed for family gatherings, and when the kids come over with their girlfriends it doesn’t feel like we’re squished. Six to eight people come for dinner every Sunday night and everyone can sit comfortably. There isn’t a bad seat in the house.

hf_Bent3Q. What challenges and tasks does a restaurant project pose?

Brenda: When I work on a restaurant, our design approach needs to be more thematic and focused on the atmosphere that we want to project. There’s always a message or a point we’re trying to convey. My message for Luckee was that it’s definitely Chinese, but it’s the first “hip” Chinese restaurant in the city. I like to call it the Chinese Terroni.


Luckee is more relaxed than people might expect. You can come as you are,  grab a quick bite and be gone. Or come for dinner with someone special, take your time and linger over a three-hour meal. Luckee still has some of the classics you’d expect from “a Chinese restaurant,” but the food and ambiance are definitely better. I never want to go to China Town, for instance, because I don’t like the bad wine and the décor: Plastic tablecloths meet basic, big round tables.

With the Thompson Hotel, our client wanted an original diner. Hence the Thompson Diner’s rich banquettes, vaulted ceilings and sleek, full-service bar.

Q. Do you have a trademark approach to each project?

Brenda: I consider what we are going to do and look at it from the outside in. Think of a skeleton analogy: It’s like starting with the skin and then working all the way through until you get right down to the tiniest bones. In some ways we can drive people mad because we like to plan and create in layers, but we’re lucky enough to be hired by folks who are able to enjoy and appreciate our approach.

Q. Bent and Luckee seem to have unique designs.

Brenda: They do. With Bent, our restaurant on Dundas, it was pretty clear to us that we were aiming to reach the essence of the building’s past. Finding beautiful church-like benches and bringing them into the space helped give the room the vibe we wanted. Personal touches such as the kids’ high-school photos add character, too. The trinkets that I went in search of ended up coming from one of my own collections that used to live in my basement.

It just had to be a Chinese design for Luckee, but we went with a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek look that’s a nod to the time when the Chinese originally came to America. Sure, there are somewhat formal Chinese restaurants with the traditional screens and the mats, but for us we felt that it didn’t need to be too precious. Rather, our goal was to invite our clients into an interesting space that we could break up in different ways. As you’ll notice, there’s a fabulous huge bench that really brings it all together.

hf_Bent4Q. You’ve used everything from dolls to schoolbook photos in your designs. How would you describe your design sensibility?

Brenda: Eclectic…Let’s start there. It doesn’t make sense to some people, but for me a design has to have authenticity and substance.

For me, velvet is the most beautiful fabric in the world and I’m partial to the vocal colours that it comes in. But it might not be the same for you. Karen and I try to explore many different eras in our work. Often what we’re interested in and take from times gone by might not be what others have seen or remembered.

Q. What’s next on the horizon?

Brenda: We’re consulting on the restaurant that Susur is doing at the airport, which is scheduled to open in 2015. Another project is a modern version of a franchise restaurant—everybody eats out now, but how do you do a better job than the last guy? How can you make it more healthyand interesting?

Q. Is there a dream assignment that you’d love to have?

Brenda: It’s not a specific thing—rather, it’s that somebody likes what I do enough to want me to come and do their project. I’m not architectural at all…I like to do everything from making the furniture or art on the wall, to choosing pieces. And please give us a big enough budget to work with.

Luckee was our biggest budget so far and the design is very coherent. We made the beautiful infinity mirror in the back and all the tables at Bent—we hand-painted them like old game boards. All the photos of nerdy high-school kids and the terrarium are also from us. Lee is little bit more bar-like, and we created all the art pieces in there. Karen’s clothes when she was designing Zapata were very Edwardian and elaborate, which plays wonderfully into her light fixtures and mosaic tables.

There’s an interesting chemistry between us—sometimes she says “It’s not enough” while I say “It’s too much”, or vice versa. It’s a good combo because we seem to be able to listen to each other and, between us, come up with terrific results.

Shelley Black’s career has spanned a unique range of editorial and corporate roles with Flare, Maclean’s and BMO Financial Group. She enjoys writing about all forms of design, travel and food.

https://bentgabledesigninc.com/

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