Before we open anything, we spend a long time on the room.
Not the logo. Not the press strategy. Not the menu, in the early stages. The room — the physical space, the light, the sound, the temperature, the height of the tables, the weight of the doors, the smell when you walk in at 10am before service starts.
This is because we believe the room is the brief. It tells you what the thing is before anyone opens their mouth.
You can feel a room that’s trying too hard. You can feel a room that doesn’t care enough. You can feel when something has been designed to photograph well versus designed to be good to sit in for two hours on a Tuesday afternoon.
We design for Tuesday afternoons. Not for the opening night photo. Not for the review. For the regular customer, the habitual visit, the place you go when you don’t want to think about where to go.
Getting the room right takes longer than everything else. We’ve pulled materials at the last minute. We’ve changed the lighting plan three weeks before opening. We’ve moved walls.
We’d do it again.