Richard's

Project Details

Project Description

In 2016, chef Richard Langston and his wife Melinda transitioned their beloved local restaurant to a newer and larger home in Downtown Boise’s burgeoning hospitality quarter. From the approach to the main entrance, the first thing you see is the glow. Large scale pendant lighting dominates the space behind the storefront glass. Soft metallic layers shine in the middle ground. As you enter the restaurant, you’re greeted by the host at a custom front desk topped in polished quartz and glowing from within. To the right, a long bar draped in white and gold and highlighted by custom rectangular pendant lighting beckons patrons to stop and have a cocktail on the glittering quartz before venturing further. To the left, the dining room space is broken into distinct but integrated spaces. The dominating feature is a canopy of rustic wine staves that floats over the center seating and drapes down to screen the dining room from the kitchen. Behind this screen, white oversized subway tile and crisp lighting provide both function and exposure for the chef and his team at work. In front, crystal drops of light perforate the mass of wood and create intimacy in the space the designers and owners dubbed the “living room.” On one side, wine-colored faux leather and rich textured finishes serve as a ground for a lacelike drape of perforated metal. At the start of the project, the designers realized how important the original location’s charm would be to the new location’s success. Long-time patrons had loved the sociability of the intimate one-room space, and reviews praised that the chef was never far out of reach. Because of this, they based the design of the new space on a straightforward (yet difficult to achieve) concept: see and be seen while enjoying an intimate dining experience. This concept was further complicated by the open concrete structure of the tenant space. How do you make a solid concrete and glass box feel cozy without closing it in? The answer, the designers found, came in utilizing scale and creating layers. The dining room is arranged into vignettes of seating that layer the space from the storefront glass that fronts the length of the restaurant to the open kitchen in the back. Layers of materials screen or conceal function, like at the feature wall, where a dance of light and gold metal conceal acoustic panels behind. At the bar, sliding doors constructed with more of the powder-coated metal screens provide a visual layer as well as a practical function: they secure the liquor at night. The height of the space is also layered with experience in mind. The volume is tempered with layers of various seating heights, then multiple levels and scales of feature lighting, then structure. Above it all, a thick layer of acoustic foam provides a functional backdrop. This, like the rest of the exposed ceiling, is the color of deep purple wine. The kitchen itself takes up over a third of the total square footage of the restaurant, as it needed to have the capacity to handle all of the food service for the attached hotel including room service, events at the conference center above, and breakfast through dinner at the restaurant. The end product allows work to flow seamlessly during the multiple phases of service. The design team kept the owner’s wish list front and center throughout the project. They also needed to keep practicality and sustainability in mind. Metal water-jet cut screens were designed in-house and locally fabricated. The wine staves that make up the canopy were sourced in person from local Idaho wineries, and suspended on a frame of aircraft cable and simple steel structure constructed on site. As the restaurant was being built at the same time as the hotel, construction resources were shared with the hotel to reduce waste. Lighting is LED and is designed not only for ambiance, but also wayfinding and visibility. Even the flooring transitions were carefully planned to allow all users to move about the space comfortably. Design concept and construction came together in a space that embraces the full context of this restaurant’s new evolution.