A new year, a new restaurant: Recette!
January 25, 2010 If 2009 is remembered for one thing, it was the year for young enterpreneurs. This past summer, I was fortunate to help Andrew Chen, a friend and owner of a menswear line called 3sixteen, on the launch of Self Edge, an SF-based denim boutique in the Lower East Side. I began to notice a marketplace different from 2008, where abandoned storefronts began to slowly show signs of life. Friends of mine took their expertise in working corporate with their discovered passions to start new businesses. My personal discovery was similar – finding photography as expression and architecture as vocation to serve others. Running two companies every day was not forecasted, nor were startup prospects by friends. Blame it on the recession or the encouraging marketplace of NYC. Opportunities to partner with others as an architectural designer arose as more startups needed design work to accommodate for their operations.
Recette is my second design project to emerge from these unexpected partnerships. Once a private dining operation in Harlem, chef/owner Jesse Schenker (of Gordon Ramsay at the London Hotel) and partner/pastry chef (and old friend) Christina Lee (of Per Se) decided to move forward with a full-service supper club at an accessible and unpretentious corner of the West Village. The space is the old Jarnac restaurant, who left quite a wild scene after ending their lease. This former French bistro garnished swell reviews over a decade of operation, but any restaurant over years of heavy use will bring a varnish to vanish.
- Initial site visits at the old Jarnac space - Summer 2009
I was called in to assess the space, the third in a series of hopeful searches around Manhattan. The corner of Greenwich and W12th St was a very cozy 1000SF of worn dark woods and French pane windows on the ground floor of a landmark residential building built in 1877. The challenge? 50 seats, a larger bar area, and an upgraded kitchen. The timeframe? Four months. Having never done a restaurant before, the opportunity as an architect was daunting but addicting. The existing bar was a musky four-seater and the kitchen a claustrophobic wet dream, coated with layers of grease and sagging acoustical ceiling tile. Amidst all this, Jarnac remained successful to the end, which speaks to NYC’s restaurant motto: If you cook it, they will come.
The first sketches aimed to remove excess niches to maximize the dining area seating and refresh the color palette while maintaining the architectural features of the classic exterior. We always thought the bar and kitchen should work together for such a small restaurant, minimizing ins and outs to one easy point of entry, and create efficiency in operation of plating, serving, and dishwashing. The kitchen would need to involve a revised menu of small plates and desserts, but accommodate an entire pig to be cooked on the range. (Their pork belly is a must-have) The existing awnings were removed as per Landmarks Preservation Commission code and replaced by satin-brushed cut brass letters, a more refined touch.
- open kitchen/bar layout
Our contractor worked at a good pace to meet our deadlines with great care to craft and materials. There were some intense days where I arrived on site in the morning, sketched a detail, and saw it built by the afternoon.
- sitting down with samples, specs, materials
- Opening night at Recette
- Pastry Chef Christina Lee & Exec Chef Jesse Schenker
Through the challenging journey of approvals and industry-specifics, I am truly proud of the end product. The photos above were all shot for Recette's press kit. Recette opened January with a huge week of buzz and visitors, and we hope for more to come as eager diners file in this winter.
Check out the website for more of my photos (and make a reservation while you're at it!)
Recette: www.recettenyc.com 328 W 12th Street, West Village.