Holymelt restaurant interior in Marseille, designed by MUR.MUR Architectes

MUR.MUR gives Holymelt’s Marseille restaurant a quieter edge

At Holymelt’s Vieux-Port restaurant in Marseille, MUR.MUR Architectes sets the quick rhythm of a smashburger counter beside the slower pause of a coffee shop. Handmade ceramic tiles, pale lime plaster and a 20-metre bench give the two experiences a shared material language.

Holymelt Burger & Coffee interior in Marseille, designed by MUR.MUR Architectes — Photo: Yvan Moreau / @yvan_moreau_photographe

Behind a discreet entrance, the 120-square-metre interior stretches deep into the block. The pavement outside is too narrow for a terrace, so the glazed frontage sits back to form a small loggia. A built-in bench and tiled coffee table make this threshold useful without taking more space from the street.

From the entrance, illuminated menu boards are already visible. Their angled format recalls arrival and departure displays in stations and airports, giving the first part of the room a clear focus. The boards occupy roughly one-third of the narrow plan and mark the smashburger counter as the restaurant’s principal service point.

A counter and a coffee shop in one room

On the right, the coffee shop begins with a large table at counter height rather than another service counter. The backlit menu boards give way to domestic wall sconces, while a broad glazed roof brings soft daylight down onto the textured surfaces. The shift is legible, but the two settings remain connected across the room.

A continuous bench, approximately 20 metres long, binds them together. Instead of a single hard ledge, it is composed of individual chair-like seats, each with a defined back and a generous place to sit. The arrangement softens the familiar fast-food format and gives customers room to settle in, whether they have come for a meal or coffee.

Handmade tile sets the pace

The burger counter, coffee-shop table and monumental bench are fixed into the existing space with elongated ceramic tiles. Their irregular cross-sections register the hand-cut process: each piece varies slightly rather than following a uniform module. Wide grout joints leave the concrete substrate visible, making the care involved in setting out the tiles part of the finished surface.

Walls finished in lime plaster mixed with marble dust add another quiet variation. The surface is softly textured and non-uniform, tempering the density of the plan without erasing it. Tables and movable seats are made from stainless steel, with spare lines that allow them to reflect the pale interior and its changing light.

The palette is deliberately focused on three principal finishes: ceramic, lime plaster and stainless steel. Each is used with limited processing, and each responds differently to touch and light. Together they establish a slower, more tactile counterpoint to the quick service associated with a smashburger restaurant.