Jim Thompson's is a group of unique, themed, Thai restaurants - each with its own eastern bazaar. Here's how we designed and built the rather unusual bar at their Brighton seafront venue.

The unique, circular, glazed building that is home to Jim Thompson's bar/restaurant at Brighton inspired the architect to create a highly unusual bar as the central attraction.

Shaped like an elongated 'm', Jim Thompson's had no hesitation in calling in Nelson to design a fully bespoke backbar system that not only addressed all the custom fabrication needed, but also maximised the layout to provide a highly efficient, hygienic workspace for bar staff to operate.

The bar is often the main feature of any front of house operation and this is certainly the case at Jim Thompsons. How-ever, for a bar to function well, the 'wow-factor' that draws the crowds must be supported by a well designed and efficient back bar which, to achieve the most effective use of space, must be custom designed.

Over recent years, we have developed our own truly bespoke bar design and manufacturing service providing a far superior alternative to many of the budget modular solutions that are available 'off the shelf'. Size and shape are limited only by your imagination - we create curves and geometrics in the highest-grade stainless steel to provide you with a design that is as unique as your operation.

Bars are treated very much the same as kitchens in terms of consultation and design - our 3D drawings enable clients to visualise how they will be serving drinks to their customers. When agreed, our 3D drawings are used to 'laser cut' full-scale steel templates, which are taken to site and laid on the ground in the proposed location.

This extra dimension to our service allows the client to experience the lay-out in its full scale format while still having a final opportunity to make alterations.

When all parties are completely happy, the templates are distributed to all contractors responsible for producing the rest of the bar structure (the frontage and serve-over counter) whilst a further set is bolted into position on site. This enables everybody concerned to work to precise shapes and dimensions so that when finally built on site, even the most complicated and unusual of bar designs can be constructed smoothly and accurately.