Two in one: private club melds fine-dining, lounge atmospheres

Nation's Restaurant News, March 8, 2004 by Lori Lohmeyer

NEW YORK -- Looking to house both a fine-dining eatery and a trendy cocktail hot spot at the same location, the owner of Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club relied on design to solve his dilemma.

Despite an exclusive location on Manhattan's posh Upper East Side, Bruno Jamais, owner of Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club, needed a point of differentiation to help the restaurant survive in the competitive New York dining arena. He decided that creating a private club where people could grab both dinner and nightcaps was the answer.

To highlight the eatery's nightlife component and create an aura of exclusivity, Jamais adopted a preferred-guest card program. Members are required to pay a $7,000 annual fee, which is used throughout the year as a food credit, similar to a debit card program, he said.

Initially, Jamais issued membership invitations to clients he had cultivated during his tenures as maitre d' at such restaurants as Alain Ducasse Restaurant at the Essex House, Daniel and Chez Regine in New York.

"I wanted to combine all of the wonderful aspects of a great restaurant or club into one escape for the refined and sophisticated," Jamais said.

Despite the steep membership fee, Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club generates between 60 and 80 covers per night and sports an average check of about $55 for food, Jamais said. He cites the restaurant's French eclectic fare and its sophisticated, luxurious atmosphere as the keys to its popularity.

"Ambience is an incredibly important element at Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club," Jamais said. "The large skylight, plush furniture, rich decor and fireplace are essential to the informal, chic comfort. People need a little more than food."

To develop the restaurant's decor package, Jamais tapped renowned design firm Tony Chi and Associates of New York. Founded by Tony Chi in 1984, the design firm boasts a list of clients that includes NoMI restaurant in Chicago, Azul and Cafe Sambal in Miami as well as a host of hotels worldwide. Chi's work at Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club, which opened its doors in November 2002, garnered the firm in 2003 a Best Restaurant Design Award from Hospitality Design magazine.

Chi's main challenge at Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club was to create a fine-dining eatery that could evolve into a sophisticated nightlife location.

"The primary thing is that I believe in elegance. I don't know bars in New York that are elegant. Bars are normally watering holes," Chi said.

Although Jamais' choice of a Victorian-style townhouse for the location of his 4,500-square-foot restaurant provided an elegant dining location, it posed serious design challenges. In addition to repairing deteriorating ceilings and replacing a greenhouse-style patio with a comfortable annex, Chi had to cope with the old house's awkward rooms. The restaurant seats 70 diners, including a 12seat private dining room.

To help advertise the restaurant's wine selection and to spice up a narrow corridor, Chi put the wine cellar on display at the front of the restaurant. Guests entering the restaurant must walk through the wine cellar to enter the dining room. "If wine is the vocabulary, then let's build the mother of all wine cellars. Not only do you see the wine, but also you feel it," he added.

Chi also installed a dining table in the wine cellar area, which helped to create an area for the sommelier and additional private dining-room space. To add a simple decorative element to the space, Chi hung wineglasses from wrought-iron fixtures suspended from the ceiling.

A glass panel featuring a design reminiscent of tree branches to evoke the atmosphere of autumn in New York separates the wine cellar from the dining room, Chi said. According to him, the glass panel helps to establish the dining room's mood because autumn is a social time in the city, owing to the good weather and the upcoming holiday season.

As part of Chi's effort to combine a restaurant and lounge, he included the restaurant's bar and its disc jockey stand in the main dining room. The back bar is accented with Chinese-style red lacquer and a silver-plated bar top.

"Having a bar component in the dining room, you create a balance of the harmony between the active and the passive," Chi added.

In addition to the bar, Chi relied on subtle touches to give the restaurant's dining room a festive atmosphere. He lowered the table height by about 3 inches to encourage lounging. Mirrors on the dining room's back wall provide glimpses of the dining room from all angles. Chi also designed a seat he named a triplet. The triplet is a sofa that allows seating for three people at varying angles to promote intermingling between tables. Squeezing 70 seats into the restaurant also helped to create a community atmosphere.

"This place is about rubbing, being together. It's not about everybody sitting two miles apart," Chi added.

Although Chi wanted to develop a dining room with a party atmosphere, he made sure to add various elements to reduce noise in the space to allow diners to chat. He installed padding on the dining room's back wall and upholstery on the restaurant's other walls. Leather-covered tables and mohair-upholstered seating also help to muffle noise.