Tabla New York, New York
Developed at the same time as Eleven Madison Park, Tabla shares the same National Register building. But it was designed to be very different from its neighbor — more intimate, with a distinctive mission of "extending the idea of American food viewed through the kaleidoscope of Indian spices." In contrast to the relative design restraint of the larger restaurant next door, this one was intended to present a visual interpretation of those spices — evoking comparably intense emotional responses among diners. The smaller scale of Tabla was enabled in large part because a 10-foot ceiling had been suspended in the original two-story-high space before National Register designation, so a second floor could be inserted to maintain that recorded first-floor height. Thus the concept developed for Tabla was to accommodate the bar and casual dining area on the street floor, with fine dining on the new floor above. That second level was treated essentially as a mezzanine, its floor plate pulled back from the enclosing walls in some areas to maintain the sense of a double-height space. This upper level is reached by a prominent stairway and overlooks the floor below through a central circular opening. The architects specifically resisted literal references to Indian architecture, but did find inspiration in Indian mandalas, the diagrams that often guided that architecture. Specifically, the Vastu-Purusha mandala inscribes a human form — in the "perfect measure" seated position — within a square whose corners represent the four cardinal points of the earth. The abstracted depiction of the human in equilibrium with the pure geometry of the square encouraged the architects to emulate the profiles of the body — the curve of a thigh, the roll of a shoulder — within the rectangular volume to be occupied. These sensuous curves can be seen in the subtle cleavages between the mezzanine and the enclosing walls and in the cast-in-place, integrally colored concrete forms of the columns, the stairs, and the bar. Some original Art Deco detail and ornament, having survived earlier alterations, has been retained and offers evidence of kinship with Eleven Madison Park. The intense colors of Tabla were inspired by Indian court miniature paintings of the 1600s, which display a particularly vivid green, along with distinctive yellows, whites, and reds — colors said to signify ardor as well as nature. The artist Robert Kushner, whose murals had enriched Gramercy Tavern, was commissioned for the stairwell painting here and the rotunda mosaics of vegetables featured in Indian cuisine, which were fabricated by Stephen Miotto.
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