Informality, 'fun' top restaurant design trends

Nation's Restaurant News, August 21, 1989 by Alan Liddle

Informality, 'fun' top restaurant design trends

Casual restaurants with a "no-design" look, decors that suggest a business has a "history" of providing good times, and theme restaurants are among the hottrest trends in design, experts across the nation indicate.

A number of designers say building "fun" into restaurants is also very much in style as the industry turns the corner and heads into the next decade. Murals, which made their last big sweep through commercial and residential properties in the 1950s, are also appearing in more and more restaurants, designers say.

"We're really trying to keep it informal -- those [casual restaurants] are the only things making any money right now," architect Bob Mesher, of Mesher, Shing & Milton in Seattle, reports.

"We're also trying to avoid making everything look like it was designed; the most comfortable places are the ones where you walk in and it looks like it's been there forever," Mesher adds.

Spiros Zakas, of Zakaspace Corp., says, "The biggest [trend] has to be the value-oriented warehouse look with exposed ceilings, cold floors, and [prominent display of] construction materials."

Zakas, whose company has offices in New York, Chicago, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., describes the trendsetting "warehouse' package as a "carefree design that looks undersigned."

Bucking the no-design trend, however, are some of the maverick big-ticket space sculptors, such as Pat Kuleto, of Kuleto Consulting & Design in Sausalito, Calif., Sam Lopata, of Sam Lopata Inc., and Adam Tihany, of Adam Tihany International, both of New York.

Kuleto, while always striving to give his spaces a feeling of "history," indicates he would never think of arranging the custom-crafted marble, blown glass, milled woods, and one-of-a-kind light fixtures called for in his designs in a manner that suggested a lack of direction.

For example, at one of his newest creations, chef Wolfgang Puck's PosTrio in San Francisco, Kuleto uses a continuous intertwining ribbon theme in the marble flooring, carpeting, and some fixtures to lead guests through the space. The ribbons also tie together the entrance bar, mezzanine, and main dining room, which are each on a different level and serve as a symbol of Southern California resident Puck's intertwining with Northern California, the designer says.

Most designers agree that exhibition food preparation areas and "brighter" decors are among the major design trends of the past decade that will make a graceful transition into the '90s.

Though many designers have been on the bright-decor bandwagon for some time, a number are now careful to point out that they do not mean a space should be overly lit. The goal, they say, is to create visual drama through the use of highlights and shadows, while balancing natural and artificial light so that patrons have an easy-on-the-eyes view of the "action" restaurant-wide.

Among the recent designer-made nominations to the "what's hot" list of design materials and ideas:

* Tile and poured floors, such as concrete and terrazzo, with inlaid designs. (Use carpet only to establish formal space, or absorb noise, some designers advise).

* Some "faux," or false, surfaces, such as hand-painted walls that appear weathered or covered by costly stone.

* Primary colors and colors that mirror the pallete selected annually by the fashion industry. This year's "in" fashion colors include black, white, and green.

* Custom light fixtures, recessed lighting, and low-voltage incandescent and halogen lighting, which more closely approximate sunlight.

* Man-made hides such as vinyl, zebra, and snake "skin" upholstery.

* Polished and oxidized copper and finished and unfinished steal and aluminum as replacements for brass trim.

Architect Sarah Semple Brown, of Semple, Brown & Roberts in Denver, is one of the growing number of designers using non-traditional trim; she says she is in search of "a good mix of materials" and "festive finishes."

For her latest project, the weeks-old Mexicali Cafe in Denver, Brown laced the decor with galvanized steel trim. The steel, as opposed to a finished metal such as brass, was more appropriate for a border-town "cafe" she indicates, but still "shows highlights [from the lighting] and reflects the colors of nearby surfaces."

Designers suggested that the question of which woods will prevail as the "choice" trim of the '90s is still open for debate.

Some designers say they prefer lighthued woods, such as pine and oak. Others, however, express a preference for darker hardwoods, such as ebony and black walnut, but add that they make sure those surfaces are well lit to show detail and reflect light.

Definitely on the "outs" most designers agree, are the pastel hues that graced many a restaurant in the early and mid--80s.

Snaps New York's Lopata, "Forget about all the pastel colors, that is dead."

While there is little demand for pastels, Lopata says, "more and more we are coming back to theme restaurants."

Home On The Range, with its life-in-a-mine-shaft ambience, Pipeline, which was inspired by an old refinery, and Caribbean-flavored Java Jive, Tokyo's hottest night club of 1988, are three of Lopata's newest themers. He confesses that designing theme restaurants can seem like "doing Disney," but insists that such concepts fill a viable market niche.