I was walking up Henry Street in Brooklyn with my family this weekend and happened on Abitare, a beautiful little store. The store is filled with wonderful accessories, table linens, glass ware, and a great collection of ceramics. They also have a very nice website which also has a blog. This is a great store for gifts and I love the white interior with the white washed floor.
The Brooklyn Design show in Dumbo was from May 9 -11th. I went to the first ever Brooklyn Design show in Dumbo some years ago and was impressed. The small show, then only at the St. Ann’s Warehouse, had some notable furniture and lighting designers. One of whom, Dform, ended up suppling most of the lighting for one of my bigger restaurant projects (see Sushi Samba in My Work). I am a bit obsessed with shows like this one. The quest for new materials and interesting furniture make it impossible for me to not attend.
The show, which has tripled in size and also included jewelry and accessory designers, was impressive. Sure - there were the booths that you quickly walk by (tons of custom expensive chunky wood tables). But there were also the handful of designers who got me really excited about this crazy business of design. The first one I came upon was Argington, a modern children’s furniture company. The designs were fresh and clean but also accommodated the ever changing needs of children. The Sahara Crib (below), for example, can convert into a toddler bed.
I also was impressed by Jill Malek, a wallpaper designer.
Her designs are bold, contemporary, playful and use terrific colors. She is also very nice and can help hook people up with good installers.
One of my other favorites was a company named Ecosystems. They are an environmentally sound firm who are making strides toward furniture manufacture that has no impact on the environment. They have just finished a hair salon in Soho where they have designed everything including all the bent plywood chairs, cabinetry, and architectural finishes.
Lastly, I spoke with a wall decal company called DVider. They have really beautiful designs that can all be easily applied and removed.
My husband and I decided to get a few new things for our apartment including new dining chairs. I really wanted lucite chairs with bent metal bases but I didn’t want to spend more than $150 per chair (tops!). Well I started my search to no avail. The ghost Stark chairs are great but too expensive and Ebay was enticing but I nearly ended up buying three sets of different chiars that were way too expensive (thank god I got out bid). Then I found the above chair at IKEA. They are perfect - molded acrylic modern seat with the bent metal base and for a mere $84! I was ecstatic. Well- apparently I am not the only one who thought so. There was no stock in the Elizabeth NJ store, Paramus NJ store, or in the Long Island location. I started spending my days obsessively checking stock at those two stores and then calling them to see when stock was to show up. They never new and could promise me nothing. Then one night I had the brain storm to check the New Haven store. They had stock!! But only six so I had to act quickly. The next morning I borrowed my in-laws car and drove and hour and half to get MY chairs. I arrived to find the chairs on display but out of stock! I was foiled again until my friend John (he lives in New Haven and came to the store for a lunch of swedish meatballs) suggested we make a scene. We didn’t do quite that but we did convince them to sell me the floor models, albeit a little scratched. I happily drove the hour and half home with 4 of, what I consider, pretty damn perfect chairs.
There has been a design movement of late to emulate the Speak Easy’s of the Prohibition era. There was always Chumley’s, on Bedford street (now closed) which operated in a real speak easy location, hidden behind an apartment door. The interiors were dark and wooden with tons of great photos and memorabilia on the wall. Then in the last five years places like Employees Only and Death and Company have sprouted. Employees Only’s entrance on Hudson street is hidden by a palm reader window. The interiors harken back to the style and elegance of the 20’s and 30’s with rounded edge wood paneling, a wooden bar, and the original marble slab floor. Death and Company’s facade has no windows and a tiny sign which is easily missed as you walk by. The interiors are a wonderful modern take on the speak easy concept. Rich materials like marbles and woods are mixed with sleek dark upholstery, etched black marble tables and a beautiful metallic plaster application that looks like wood grain. Here the concept of the speak easy has morphed. One could say it was represented by a woman in a flapper dress sleeved in tattoos.
All this brings me to Elettaria, designed by Jason Volenec, where I went last weekend. The name is Latin for green cardamom. Here the speak easy motif has morphed yet again. Elettaria has elements which imply secrets. There is a wonderful fake staircase as you enter and all the art work and mirrors are cut off at the top to imply the ceiling was a last minute thought, or to imply a history and layering of the interiors. What is different here is the large plate glass windows. Here is the speak easy you can see into. The materials are lush with velvets, antique mirror and beautiful wooden tables. I loved the design and the food, service and atmosphere were lovely as well. The bathrooms seemed like an afterthought and were a little boring.
Its hard to get a reservation so book in advance or go and eat at the bar.
The Empire Hotel, across the street from Lincoln Center is one of Goodman Charlton’s newest designs for the Empire Hotel Group. It is quite lovely. The guest is greeted by an simple entry which leads into a double height elegant sitting room. This room is flanked by a bar, the reception desk, and the elevator bank. It is not a huge space which is nice. It felt warm, comfortable, and inviting. My friend Jen Morris (a designer at Zeff Design) made a good point in saying the space feels like a touch of old Hollywood. The room is luxurious with layers of fabrics, textures, woods, and a terrific floor pattern in stone. The combination of the dramatic double height drapes, zebra patterned accent chairs, and high backed velvet banquettes really brings back the sense of another era. The space is filled with textures and patterns (perhaps a few too many) but one that I love is the dark venitian plaster in an alligator print at the stair case. It’s gorgeous. The Mezzanine is only on one side of the double height sitting room. The designers, very smartly, echoed the metal bannister detail opposite the mezzanine. They put mirror behind the banister to give the alusion the mezzanine continued all around.
Goodman Charlton used the Empire Hotel logo throughout the space. This can often be cheesy but they did it really well. The metal door pull as you enter and the carpet pattern going up the stairs both incorporate the two E’s of the logo. The only thing I wish they had done differently were the bathrooms. The attention to detail that is exhibited in the main space is lost here. The partition doors do not close properly and there are a miriad of fixture finishes.
I didn’t have a chance to see the rooms or to sit at the bar so I can’t really comment on those.
It’s worth a visit and they had a very nice Spanish Cava.
My husband and I went to a fabulous new restaurant this weekend. We didn’t eat there (except for desert and the $16 kir royal). We did, however, sit at the bar and ooh and ah over the gorgeous interior. Bar Blanc is a beautiful small restaurant on west 10th street. It’s owned by a charming French man (didn’t get his name) and was designed by Meyer Davis. It’s a jewel. It’s simplicity is its strength. The interior is a simple white with punches of super shiny lacquer black. The original brick walls were laboriously covered with numerous layers of plaster creating a watery movement that is original and sensuous. There are spectacular mirror finish pendants and chandeliers hanging in the space that juxtapose the white walls and furniture. The bar stools and chairs are gorgeous. They must be custom and how daring to be white! The bar is a beautiful white marble with a touch of brown, warming the space but also adding a luxury that feels great. The staff was charming and excited to be there, which for me, makes the experience that much more pleasant. In addition to loving the dining room, the bathrooms (a pet peeve of mine) are lovely. A spectacularly shiny custom plaster finish greets you and continues into the toilet stalls. I love to pee in splendor!
Go to Bar Blanc - even just for a drink - it’s worth it.
