Restaurants and bars call upon all of the senses, not just taste, to establish an emotional connection with customers. They rely on their architecture and decor to establish a visual identity that reflects ...
Ordinary materials used in extraordinary ways pump up the drama of this renovated suburban shopping mall restaurant.
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By Mary Scoviak
Horst Design International's (HDI) award-winning renovation of Long Island's Nisen Sushi shows how much ethnic restaurant design has come of age. Sure, there are clear references to this upscale eatery's aesthetic roots: bamboo, used to landscape a small outdoor piazza as well as to back upholstered booths in the bar/lounge; Asian-inspired murals that adorn the backwalls of the private booths/pods and abstract overhead fixtures that offer a modern take on traditional shoji rice paper lamps. But it's the Japanese sensibility for manipulating basic elements into bold statements—rather than the choice of any particular objects—that makes this 3,000-sq.ft. space culturally correct in contemporary terms.
Take the idea of origami. HDI applies it to surfaces and furnishings. Sculpted metallic panels shimmer with color-changing LED lighting on the backwall of the sushi bar, making it a focal point both for the restaurant and from the street. In the bar/lounge, an illuminated wall composed of high-relief paper tiles provides a tactile backdrop for large-screen plasma televisions. The private booths/pods pick up the theme, draping a softened A-frame-shaped shell of white plastic laminate around plushly upholstered seating.
HDI also extrapolates the Japanese idea of finding non-structural solutions to develop distinct areas with open sightlines. “We had to work with the existing toilet, kitchen and bar locations. Although these areas were revamped, their footprints were dictated to us. It's always more challenging to reinvent a space when you have to work around given elements,” says HDI president Douglas Horst. (His Spring Harbor, N.Y., firm also designed the Nisen Sushi location in Woodbury, N.Y. To read more on that venue, click here .)
Leveraging the opportunity to nearly double the dining and bar areas, HDI gutted the existing interior to establish four zones: a sushi bar, the main dining room, the bar/lounge and the private booths/pods. Furnishings, level changes and lighting do most of the work of carving out each section. For example, a 40-ft. illuminated ceiling ushers guests into the reception area. The planes of a suspended ceiling hover above the bar/lounge. Jet black bamboo banquettes help to separate this active space from the quieter areas of the main dining room and pods beyond. For optimal privacy, pod walls soar nearly 12 ft.
The Japanese screen and the entire idea of the balance between what's seen and what's hidden provides further design inspiration. Frosted glass panels between the men's and women's rest rooms offer an abstracted glimpse of the movements on either side. Frosting reappears on the finish of the bar top and face, this time applied to a translucent Avonite material that glows as LEDs shift color throughout the evening.
Natural materials thread through the restaurant, from the new rough-cut stone façade to the stone reception desk. Bamboo shows up in the bar banquettes, but takes center stage in the new outdoor piazza. “Incorporating that outside private dining garden in a strip shopping center setting was a major challenge,” says Horst. “After careful negotiations with the shopping center team, we managed to carve out a small area for about 30 seats. We designed a natural bamboo landscape buffer to provide both the desired ambience and privacy.”
This modern take on Japanese styling fit the goals of co-owners Tom Lam and Robert Beer of achieving an image that was glitzy and hip enough for adults but comfortable enough to be family friendly. “The atmosphere is like the New York City Meat Packing District meets South Beach in a high-paced, sophisticated, contemporary Japanese restaurant,” Beer says. Adds Craig Jacobson, the restaurant's manager, “Now, Nisen Sushi is exquisite, gorgeously detailed. Everyone feels like s VIP as soon as he or she walks in the door.”
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