Restaurant Bar Design

Given the current renovation trends, if you don't have some piece of an atrium lobby or big-box public spaces on your boards now, you probably will in the near future. Some renewed signs of life in the MICE market are persuading owners of conference hotels to spruce up the offer near-term. The challenge is going to be how to make these caverns into appealing, third place destinations.

EDG Interior Architecture + Design's Jennifer Johanson is using movement to get rid of the dead zones in the atrium lobby of the Hilton Anatole Dallas. Her piazza concept, with its gardens, restaurants and small town center vibe, is intended to draw conference attendees and guests into the new gathering space.  But even the coolest restaurant design or lounge seating isn't going to keep people in motion in the lobby 24/7.

Johanson and her team turned to kinetic art for a solution. Here's a sampling of what impressed them:



Above is a work by Reuben Margolin, a San Francisco bay area kinetic artist known for making motion with complex constructs of materials from wood to cardboad.

So take that inspiration and set some hospitality design trends--and, if you have time before the holiday weekend, send in a project to compete in the European Hotel Design Awards.

Award categories include the best architecture of a hotel, both conversion and newbuild.  Interior design categories for various spaces including guestrooms, bar, restaurant and lobby areas. Other awards celebrate innovation, sustainability and the two final awards recognize outstanding contribution to the industry and the European Hotel Design of the Year. They will be announced November 23 as a kick-off to this year's Sleep Event Exhibition in London. The deadline for entries is the 28th May 2010. Get entry guidelines here.

Do the hospitality market and design industry need yet another themed restaurant/ entertainment concept? Mark Advent, the guy behind the New York New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, thinks so. For that reason, Advent’s company has acquired the exclusive international licensing rights to develop, own and operate Orange County Choppers Roadhouse, a full-service restaurant/ bar/microbrewery/gaming/hospitality/ retail/entertainment experience.

The venue takes its name from the custom motorcycle brand that’s featured in the reality cable TV show, “American Chopper.” The restaurant design for the first outlet, an 8,500-sq.-ft. creation of Washington, D.C.-based CORE architecture + design, will feature a hospitality interior with a center bar and keg room, along with indoor/outdoor seating. That flagship will open this summer in Orange County Choppers’ hometown of Newburgh, N.Y. After that, locales are planned for Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas and Dubai. And how’s this for free advertising -- the construction, opening and ongoing business of Orange County Choppers Roadhouse will be highlighted in “American Chopper,” beginning in the show’s 2010-2011 season.

For a look at other new hospitality design concepts, visit Hospitality Style and check out its quarterly print edition.

I like the fact that both hotel restaurant design and concepts for freestanding restaurants continue to the blur the line between what's hot and what's haute. The latest example is San Francisco's Barbacco Eno Trattoria.

Its co-owners, Umberto Gibin and executive chef Staggan Terje, initially saw the new venture as a complementary offer to their award-winning Perbacco Ristorante + Bar just two doors away. Given the Financial District setting, the idea was that Perbacco would draw the CEOs and dealmakers while its new little sister projected the right attitude to attract mid-level managers and mid-spend foodies. But as The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle's online SFgate.com and other reviewers have reported, Barbacco's combination of Terje's creative Northern Italian food and CCS Architecture's edgy style have made this 66-seat eatery a popular choice for power brokers as well as their staffs.

Cass Calder Smith and his design team created a look that would fit Barbacco into Gibin and Terje's expanding brand family without just knocking off their flagship--also designed by CCS. The Italian accent was obvious, given the menu. What wasn't is the choice of the sexy side of Italian culture as inspiration--particularly, the yellow of the Ferrari emblem, lots of chrome, mirrors and elements angled as if they're ready to put pedal to the metal. Smith's not afraid to use marble alongside high density fiberboard, or polished chrome with rustic brick.