Arxontiko · Spile, Himarë
A marble box with a wall that leaves
Marble walls, a banquette in orange, burgundy, mustard and teal, and a black-framed glass front that folds flat onto the Himarë promenade in summer.
A marble box
White marble lines the dining room wall, with bulbs hung on rope cords and the glasses racked above the black counter. It is a cold, bright room, and in Himarë in August that is the point.
The loud banquette
Along one wall the seating runs orange, burgundy, mustard and teal in a row, under a gold-framed painting of rocks and shallow water. It is the loudest thing in a room otherwise made of marble, timber and glass, and the whole site takes its colour from here.
A wall that leaves
The street elevation is black-framed folding glass. In summer it concertinas flat and the room opens straight onto the deck, the road and the bay behind it. There is no threshold to speak of once it is open.
Upstairs
The four floors above this room are ARXONTIKO, the family hotel the restaurant belongs to. Guests come down for breakfast; everyone else walks in off the promenade. Rooms, rates and availability are on the hotel’s own site.
The room, photographed
Rruga Jorgji Bollano, Spile, Himarë