Pharmacy Restaurant Ashtrays by Artist Damien Hirst Now Available.

Contemporary artist Damien Hirst tried his hand at the restaurant business in 1998 when he opened the art-filled Pharmacy Restaurant + Bar in London. Filled with pseudo-scientific pharmacy-themed items, Hirst curated every design element from metallic pill-printed wallpaper and pill-shaped ashtrays.


above: the gold and silver pill covered wallpaper by Hirst for the restaurant.

The gourmet restaurant featured fine dining and cocktails with names like "Cough Syrup" or "Voltarol Retarding Agent" served up by a waitstaff decked out in surgically inspired outfits designed by Prada.

The Pharmacy restaurant closed its doors in 2003. Sotheby's then auctioned off the contents after the restaurant closure, with bidding ranging from £1,920 for a pair of salt and pepper shakers to £1.2m for a giant mock medicine cabinet.


above: The Sotheby's Hirst Auction catalog.

However, these ashtrays weren't included in the Pharmacy auction at Sothebys on October 18th 2004, so now they are available for purchase from Other Criteria.

Pharmacy Ashtray 8630 by Damien Hirst, 2011:

Painted Aluminium
111 x 111 x 31 mm
Unlimited edition

Pharmacy Ashtray THREE HEADS by Damien Hirst, 2011:

Painted Aluminium
91 x 91 x 31 mm
Unlimited edition

Pharmacy Ashtray LILLI U53 by Damien Hirst, 2011:

Painted Aluminium
107 x 93 x 31 mm

Pharmacy Ashtray N by Damien Hirst, 2011:

Painted Aluminium
111 x 111 x 31 mm

Pharmacy Ashtray NICOTINE by Damien Hirst, 2011:

Clear glass
99 x 99 x 31 mm
Unlimited edition

Pharmacy Ashtray SALVOY 1023 by Damien Hirst, 2011:

Painted Aluminium
131 x 73 x 31
Unlimited edition

Pharmacy Ashtray WYATH 765 by Damien Hirst, 2011:

Painted Aluminium
99 x 99 x 31 mm
Unlimited edition

Please note that if used as an ashtray (or other than for display purposes) the gallery cannot guarantee that it will retain its original condition.

The painted aluminium ashtrays shown are priced at £450. The Glass Nicotine ashtray is £300.

Contact Other Criteria for ordering info.

The Most Bizarre (and some of the tackiest) Places To Eat In The U.S.

above: heart Attack Grill, Chandler, AZ.

According to Forbes Travel, the following are the most bizarre (and in some cases, I think the tackiest) restaurants in the United States. A collection of 'theme' restaurants which are said to actually have good food as well (sorry, Medieval Times). The picks and descriptions are from their article, but I've added more images, addresses, phone numbers and links for your infotainment. Bon Appetit!

The Supper Club, San Francisco, Calif.


Designed to enlighten all five of your senses, this 11,000-square-foot, all-white avant-garde Harrison Street spin-off of a Dutch restaurant is unlike any other dining experience you will encounter. After being tucked into your bed/dinner table for your meal by a risqué performance artist/waiter, you'll spend four hours dining and being serenaded by drag queens (and kings), getting rubdowns from a masseur, and wowed by acrobats. Even school nights end on the neon light dance floor that's filled well into the morning.


The Supper Club
657 Harrison St
San Francisco, California 94107
(415) 348-0900

Heart Attack Grill, Chandler, Ariz.

Customers are referred to as "patients," orders as "prescriptions," and the scantily clad waitresses as "nurses" at this hospital-themed bar and grill in Chandler, Ariz., which promotes that its fries are deep-fried in lard and allows diners who weigh over 350 pounds to eat for free. In complete disregard of any sort of health food movement, menu items like an 8,000-calorie quadruple bypass burger, Jolt cola and unfiltered cigarettes have led to the restaurant having to post, as required by the state of Arizona, that the nurses have no medical training.

Heart Attack Grill
6185 West Chandler Boulevard
Chandler, AZ 85226
(480) 705-9870

Opaque, Los Angeles, Calif.

Altering the notion of food being eaten with the eyes, this Los Angeles culinary adventure serves a two-hour, multi-course gourmet meal to diners who cannot see their food. By dining in a pitch-black room--you'll be led to your table by the blind and visually impaired waiters--your sense of taste, touch, smell and hearing will be enhanced by abandoning the "visual stigmas" attached to food for a more authentic experience.

Opaque
2020 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 546-7619

The Safe House, Milwaukee, Wis.


You'll need to whisper the secret code into the ear of the doorman to enter International Exports Ltd., the fake front of this spy-themed Milwaukee restaurant that has been open since 1966. Inside the maze-like building, you'll come across numerous secret passages--like to the Milwaukee Press Club--and spy holes among the walls that are decorated with spy memorabilia from movies and espionage books.

The Safe House
779 North Front St
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(414) 271-2007

Casa Bonita, Denver, Colo.


Casa Bonita is a sort of Mexican restaurant crossed with Disneyland, and is so well-known in Colorado that it was featured in an episode of South Park. The 52,000-square-foot restaurant that can seat more than a thousand is home to more than just all-you-can-eat beef enchiladas. Among the 22-karat gold leaf dome and pirate caverns are cowboy shootouts, escaping gorillas, cliff divers, and a mish mash of Mexican-related performances.

Casa Bonita (no website)
6715 W Colfax Ave
Lakewood, CO 80214
(303) 232-5115


Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant, Sister Bay, Wis.


Visible from the center of Sister Bay, a single log house on a hill designed in Norway and assembled in the States piece by piece, sticks out with its grass-covered roof topped with live goats. The 60-year-old Scandinavian-themed pancake house, where mostly Northern European waitresses dressed in traditional garb, has dished out Swedish meatballs and lingonberry to rural Wisconsin for more than three decades.

Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant
10698 N. Bay Shore Drive
Sister Bay, WI 54234
800-241-9914 ext.25

Kitsch'n, Chicago, Ill.

One of Chicago's cult classic eateries, this oddity just a half mile from Wrigley Field--known for its chicken and waffles--lures eaters in with what may be the world's only '70s funksploitation-film-themed restaurant. You can enjoy their weekly Hangover Brunch while admiring the vast collection of beer cans, lava lamps, Billy Dee Williams images, "Colt 45" signs, vintage lunch boxes, and H&R Puff'n Stuff action figures.

Kitsch'n
2005 West Roscoe Street
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 248-7372

Kitsch’n River North
600 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 644-1500

Tony Packo's, Toledo, Ohio

This Hungarian pickle and hot dog restaurant opened in 1932, but took off in 1976 when the Toledoan character Corporal Max Klinger of the TV show M*A*S*H* said, "If you're ever in Toledo, Ohio, on the Hungarian side of town, Tony Packo's got the greatest Hungarian hot dogs. Thirty-five cents." Since around that time, like a bastard version of Sardi's, they have been lining the walls with hot dog buns signed by celebrities and encased in glass.


Tony Packo's Cafe
1902 Front St.
Toledo OH
419 691-6054

Ninja New York, New York, N.Y.


Screaming, bowing, smoke-bellowing ninjas drop from the ceiling and become your servers at this feudal- era ninja castle in Tribeca. The dramatic setting is based on partly fictional Japanese lore. Dark labyrinths must be navigated to reach the dining areas, which are either in cave-like dojos or a feng shui rock garden. Adventurous and creative Japanese fare like monkfish liver salad and sashimi are on the menu, but more memorable will be the Ninja Art Dishes that include the table-side throwing of Ninja stars and chopping of grapefruits by sword.

Ninja
25 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013-3802
(212) 274-8500

Mars 2112, New York, N.Y.


Thirty-five thousand square feet of Martian landscape define this restaurant and bar in New York's Times Square. Dining rooms are modeled after spaceships and the red, rocky surface of Mars. To get inside you must "ride" to the multi-level restaurant in a private spaceship (aka elevator), and when the doors open you are greeted by a crew of resident aliens. Inside the Mars Bar find a TV with Mars weather forecasts, though the restaurant's highlight is their unequivocal crystal tree with a glass window that looks back at the earth and stars.


Mars 2112
1633 Broadway
New York, 10020
(212) 582-2112


The Fort, Morisson, Colo.

In 1962, when opening this replica of Bent's Fort--a seven-acre 1830s fur trade and freighting center on the Sante Fe Trail--the owner researched more than 2,000 historic journals and diaries to guarantee the atmosphere and food were as authentic as possible. He built the structure out of adobe bricks and added fire pits, tepees, New Mexican farolitos, and a floor of earth and ox blood (now covered with wood planks). The restaurant now sells more buffalo meat than any other independently owned restaurant in the United States in the form of steaks, prime rib, hump, tongue, sausage and "Rocky Mountain oysters."

The Fort
19192 Colorado 8
Morrison, CO 80465
(303) 697-4771

CARCHITECTURE? A Car House AND Restaurant Inspired By The VW Beetle

I know it's been making the rounds on the design blogs, but only part of this interesting story is getting much press- and almost 8 years after the fact. This unusual homage to the VW Beetle, not only exists as a personal residence built in 2003, but inspired a larger version four years later that is now a restaurant and bar by the same builder.


above: Builder Markus Voglreiter next to his Car Home and later, his Car Restaurant

THE HOME:


The personal home, a project that began in 2003 is a 900 square foot, 3 story livable home inspired by the Bug, by builder Markus Voglreiter . The 36 year old master builder spent £750,000 to create the 3 story structure which is based on the original Beetle produced by Porsche in 1935.



The car shaped structure is constructed out of pine wood except for its cement foundation. The two second story bedroom windows appear as headlights at night when the lights within are on, casting a glow over the landscape.

Interior shots:



The small bathroom window appears as the car's fuel cap from the exterior.


The unique Auto Residence was built on the border of a nature preserve in Gnigl near Salzburg, Austria. The owners originally purchased a corner lot with a typical 70’s style suburban home on it, and wanted to renovate and update the house and structure.

Voglreiter created two separate dwelling areas for parents and children by closing off former openings and thereby allowing future generations to live under one roof. He also instituted “3 liter” energy efficient heating and insulation techniques that optimize all current building technologies, drastically reducing energy consumption.


THE RESTAURANT



After the Car Home, Markus Voglreiter and his team began construction on THE CAR, DAS AUTO, a restaurant and bar located in Obertrum, an area north of Salzberg, Austria. The project cost 1.6 million euros and was co-financed by Daniell Porsche.









The Car Restaurant seats 300 and has room for 350 on the outside terraces.

Inside the bar:

Inside the dining area:

restroom:




The unusual atmospheric restaurant and bar opened in 2007 and serves fine food and drink. It can be used for special events and parties as well.

TCDA THE CAR . DAS AUTO
Gruberfeldstrasse 8
A-5162 Obertrum
T: +43 (0)6219 / 20 441
Opening times:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 17:00 - 24:00
Sunday 11:30 to 23:00

images courtesy of stadtbaumeister, bright-tec, and The Car Das Auto


See other projects by builder Markus Voglreiter here.