JULY/AUGUST 2014 HOSPITALITY REINVENTED STEPPING IT UP AMY JAKUBOWSKI PUCCINI GROUP
CHARLES DOELL FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL MISTER IMPORTANT DESIGN APOLOGIES TO Shakespeare, but there can be a lot in a name. Doell s provocative corporate moniker sums up the nine-year-old firm s ebullient, expressive and witty design philosophy. But it also serves notice that there s serious design talent at work. That combination earned this restaurant and nightlife design specialist a shelf full of awards for projects from Chambers Eat + Drink on his home turf in San Francisco to Alegra in Dubai. It also led to a cross-over into the hotel market, most recently with the Hard Rock Hotel Palm Springs that s profiled on page 54. JOEL VILLALON PRINCIPAL BRAYTONHUGHES DESIGN STUDIOS OVER THE COURSE of his 22 years at BraytonHughes, Villalon has worked on a wide variety of hospitality projects, including the Four Seasons Resort and Residences in Vail, Colo., the Chuan Spa at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., and the Kukio Golf Clubhouse in Kona, Hawaii. Villalon and his team recently completed the firm s first hotel in China the Fairmont Nanjing that s housed in the upper half of a skyscraper. To see how the designers created a sophisticated, three-tiered sense of place in that high-rise venue, turn to page 22. PAUL BASILE FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL BASILE STUDIO BASILE IS AN ardent advocate of the local reclaimed design movement, working to elevate wood, glass and steel from their humble elemental origins to works of art. After moving from Detroit to San Diego in the 90s, the self-taught Basile fashioned furniture out of discarded rebar, sold the finished product and never looked back. He founded BASILE Studio in 1994, and turned it into a full-service design/ fabrication studio in 2008. His projects on the San Diego restaurant scene include Craft & Commerce and the Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant, along with the new Ironside Fish & Oyster featured on page 32. COURTESY OF CHARLES DOELL (DOELL); COURTESY OF BRAYTONHUGHES (VILLALON); JOHN DOLE (BASILE) 6 boutiquedesign.com JULY/AUGUST 2014
1 To accentuate the restaurant's 14-ft. ceilings, BASILE Studio incorporated an arching steel trellis on one side of the space, and globe lights hanging from glass chains on the other. MIKE NEWTON (1); JOHN DOLE (BASILE) 32 boutiquedesign.com JULY/AUGUST 2014
FISH TALES BASILE Studio melds nautical references, theatrical touches and graphic chutzpah at Ironside Fish & Oyster, CH Projects newest San Diego eatery. BY JENNY S. REISING RESTAURATEUR ARSALUN TAFAZOLI, co-founder of restaurant group CH Projects, has a passion for good design, good food, good beer and good conversation. He is equally fervent about the things he detests: vodka, TV and ketchup. As a result, you won t find any of the latter items at the eight (and counting) restaurants he and his partner, Nate Stanton, operate in San Diego. The biggest thing is no ketchup; people get really emotional about it, says Tafazoli, a law school dropout who opened his first restaurant at age 26. We re definitely not for everybody. But whether people love us or hate us, it gets them thinking they might say f--- you or I get it, but either way, we ll get a reaction. And that s important for us. That in-your-face approach is on prominent display in CH Projects latest endeavor, the Ironside Fish & Oyster, an oyster bar and bakery housed in a renovated warehouse in San Diego s Little Italy. Tafazoli and Stanton tapped go-to local design/build firm BASILE Studio to create a modern industrial design that bucks trends, rather than follows them. PAUL BASILE BASILE STUDIO JULY/AUGUST 2014 boutiquedesign.com 33
BASILE Studio principal Paul Basile likens his relationship with Tafazoli to a marriage. Arsalun has an eye for design he knows what looks good and what doesn t, Basile explains. But as the lead designer on this project, it's up to me to create the overall concept and make sure the parts work. That s how our collaboration happens. For Ironside, the team started with the 1920s industrial building that was most recently occupied by Ironside Metal Works (the restaurant s namesake). The single-story, 5,000-sq.-ft. structure featured good bones and 14-ft. ceilings with original trusses, Basile says. With such a large, open space, the designer saw an opportunity to create separate but connected eating areas with an emphasis on metal construction, custom conversation starters and nautical undertones. Metal fabrication, Basile s first love and main passion, dominates the design. At the entrance, for example, Basile created five 5-by-11-ft.- tall steel, wood and glass doors that pivot open using an electric actuator. When flipped up, the doors become a shaded awning over the restaurant s patio. Inside, an oversized ceiling-height steel trellis affixed with frosted light bulbs an ode to Basile s love of old bridge construction scales the back wall of the bar and curves toward the ceiling rafters. Rows of shelves housing spirits rise up nearly to the ceiling, with a 10-ft.-tall rolling steel ladder spanning the length of the bar to keep them within arm s reach. Tafazoli, who admits to a childhood obsession with Jules Verne and a fascination with set design, worked with BASILE Studio to infuse Ironside with a bit of both. For example, Basile used a copper, brass and steel materials palette and mix of birch and walnut woods to demarcate 2 Conversation-starters within the restaurant include an octopus tentacle (whose end encircles a light fixture) jutting out of a porthole. 3 Graphic elements, including this not-so-subtle sign on the ceiling above the restroom doors, play an important role in the Ironside restaurant. 4 Eat or be eaten? That seems to be the question posed by this 7-by-12-ft. wall-art installation of faux piranha heads by sculptor/set designer Brandon Kihl. 4 2 3 CARISSA O'CONNOR (2, 4); ZACK BENSON (3) 34 boutiquedesign.com JULY/AUGUST 2014
5 Anchoring the dining area is a marble communal table adjacent to the chef's bar. At the top rear of the space, ship railings front antique trunks and other touches that mimic a ship's cargo hold. and distinguish the restaurant s four eating areas. To unify the design, Basile used mint-green paint (under tables and counters, on benches and along lower walls) along with nautical details, including portholes on the restroom doors, anchor hooks on swiveling stools and rivets (about 3,000 in total) that add texture to counters and chairs. Larger seafaring references include a wall installation by set designer/ sculptor Brandon Kihl comprising 2,000 faux piranha skeleton heads with a painting of the sea set in the center, as well as shelving niches above the restrooms that mimic a ship s cargo hold, complete with artfully stacked luggage, old trunks and other maritime tchotchkes. Basile, who started out as a furniture designer when he moved from Detroit to San Diego 25 years ago, takes particular pride in the stools he customdesigned for the bar areas. To encourage social interaction at the main bar and oyster bar, he used a single steel post with two circular butcher-block seats that pivot and swivel, with room for a third person to perch on the middle post. Contoured seats at the chef s table and across from the oyster bar have more of a diner feel, with anodized aluminum brass-look backs and wood seats on steel posts. Integrating graphics into the design is another CH Projects hallmark. When we have an opportunity to incorporate verbiage into our restaurants, we do, Tafazoli says. You literally read our core values in the graphics. In keeping with that approach, the building s front façade was stripped to expose a faded Ironside Metal Works Salesroom sign, and the aphorism, A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats, was added in steel letters at the edge of the roof. Just inside the entrance, a daily oyster pun (e.g., The World Is UR Oyster or It s Up 2 U 2 Find the Pearls ) appears on a black-, white- and redletter marquee alongside another marquee listing the catch of the day. And above the entrance to the restrooms, the phase Shit Happens is spelled out in individually illuminated red channel letters. The 205-seat restaurant has been reeling in a wave of business since its opening this past spring. It s been crazy there s a reservation backlog, Tafazoli says. But he doesn t have time to bask in that success. He s too busy working on the next projects a hipster Jewish deli, a follow-up to the successful UnderBelly restaurant, an organic eatery and more. I have a pretty stressful existence, which could be a failing but it s not. It s a gift, Tafazoli says. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS OWNER CH Projects: Arsalun Tafazoli and Nathan Stanton, co-founders; Jason McLeod, executive chef/partner DESIGN BASILE Studio: Paul Basile, principal; Dan Sullivan, lead designer; Richard Lonsdale and Ricardo Balvandea, design assistants SPECIALTY DESIGN CONSULTANT: Kihl Studios (sirens, octopus arm light, piranha wall) PURCHASING COMPANY: BASILE Studio ARCHITECT Mark Bausback GENERAL CONTRACTOR Hawkins Construction CHAIRS Industry West CONCRETE INLAYS, FURNITURE, LIGHTING, SIGNAGE/GRAPHICS, TABLES, WOOD WALLS AND WAINSCOT BASILE Studio DE-STRESSED PAINT, LIGHTING Kihl Studios ROUND TABLES Restoration Hardware TILE Hawkins Construction For a full list of participants, go to boutiquedesign.com ZACK BENSON (5) 36 boutiquedesign.com JULY/AUGUST 2014