Downtown country dining: serving upscale Italian cuisine inside a traditional Tuscan-style farmhouse setting ensures success for Cascata restaurant in Oklahoma City

Nation's Restaurant News, July 1, 2002

Developing an upscale Italian restaurant in Oklahoma City's Edmond area provided a unique opportunity for designers to fill a niche creatively in the area's dining scene.

The strategic alliance of Star Restaurant Group, Studio Arquitectura, Inc. and Next Step Design Group had the daunting task of developing a restaurant from the ground up that reflected its Northern Italian cuisine. To complement the high-end fare at Cascata, such as gnocchi in a Gorgonzola cream sauce, grilled filet mignon or veal scaloppini with wild mushrooms, designers returned to the cuisine's roots in Northern Italy and modeled the restaurant after a Tuscan-style villa.

Starting with the restaurant's exterior, Harry Perez-Daple of Santa Fe, N.M.-based Studio Arquitectura, Inc. planted various flora, such as columnar trees, to enhance the grounds. In addition to landscaping, stucco in muted colors on the restaurant's exterior and a circular driveway gives the restaurant a Tuscan appeal.

With seats for approximately 200 customers and measuring in at 8,000 square feet, designers carried their Tuscan theme throughout the restaurant's interior.

At the heart of CASCATA, which means waterfall in Italian, is a waterfall decorating the back wall of the restaurant. Large windows with a view of the treetops outside and the waterfall help give the restaurant's main dining room a patio-style setting. Perez-Daple said he used the area's penchant for large roofs to his advantage in his "Tuscan Villa" by supporting the 30-foot-high ceilings with old world-style distressed timber rafters and columns. Muted lighting, wrought iron screens, fabric ceilings and various brick elements give the interior a homey atmosphere.

In addition to its main dining room, Cascata has a private dining room, chef's table and lounge area. The lounge area is dotted with several floor lamps, comfortable chairs and a roaring fireplace, making it feel like a living room. Large floor lamps help to light the space and Italian-style artwork lines the walls.

But Cascata restaurant's Tuscan, upscale decor is not limited only to the front-of-the-house. J. Russell Stilwell, FCSI, of Next Step Design Group gave the restaurant's back-of-the-house a European flair by building an exhibition kitchen with an island suite at its heart. Chefs face each other and cook around the island suite rather than a typical straight-line American kitchen approach. "People working and facing each other in close proximity are going to have better communication, creating a more efficient kitchen," Stilwell said.

In an effort to show off the kitchen's European design, the team added a round, six-seat, chief's table. With customers' eyes on the interior, they added various elements to bring the subtle design elements of the dining room into the kitchen. Installing a wood overshelf for food pick-up, rather than typical stainless steel, and putting the front counters on raised curves to prevent customers from focusing on the kitchen's floor enhanced the table's view. A peek into the restaurant's glass-encased, temperature-controlled wine room also adds to the mystique of the table's location.

RELATED ARTICLE: Fast Facts:

Project: Cascata Restaurant Edmond Okla

Client: Star Restaurant Group, Washington, D.C.

Foodservice Facilities Consultant: J Russell Stilwell, FSCI Next Step Design Group, Annapolis, Md.

Architect: Harry Perez Daple, Studio Arquitecura Inc., Santa Fe, N.M.