BEFORE
AFTER
PROJECT NAME
Dinner Party
PROJECT TYPE
Restaurant
LOCATION
86 S. Portland Ave, Brooklyn NY
ROLE
Designer
BEFORE
AFTER
In January of 2021 I designed and lead the remodel of a small restaurant in Fort Greene - remotely.
The design goal was:
“A dinner party in your
-aristocratic but eccentric-
-well traveled but exiled-
Aunt’s living room”
PRESS
“It’s a wildly cool maybe-living-room-maybe-restaurant that we’ve only seen the likes of outside of the U.S.”
“I felt like I was in the warmly stylish living room of someone who moved into a rent-controlled apartment — complete with a small atrium — in the 1960s and never left.”
“…the vibe inside already recalls a mellow, lived-in apartment. “
Prior to Dinner Party’s occupancy of the space-
86 S. Portland had been home to a number of beloved neighborhood restaurants with vibrant interiors.
STORY
Unfortunately, in-between occupancies, all of the walls and ceilings had all been painted white.
My goal was to bring back as much of the character as we could.
PEQUENA
(Restaurant
prior to DPBK)
I started by sending the Client a handful of images that evoke the domestic as much as the public- with an eclectic but tasteful mix of furniture, art, and lighting:
I made material boards and 3d sketches of what we wanted the space to look like, reached out to local contractors to get bids for the work, and sourced the materials and fixtures we wanted to use.
The furniture and fixtures for the space were sourced from trips to consignment stores and vintage marketplaces. Every object - from the center pieces to the custom stained glass window- was handpicked and has a special story.
The gallery wall has art from all stages of my life alongside art from local artist and friends.
Dinner Party opened to the public in June 2021.
Photography by [kate previte] [xander] [courtney kinnare] [susie jetta] and [busboy]
