Rouge Tomate New York, New York
In this restaurant, an innovative food concept that originated in Belgium was introduced to Midtown Manhattan. Like the original Rouge Tomate in Brussels, its first U.S. location was committed to the nutritional charter Sanitas Per Escam, or Health Through Food — a genuine respect for ingredients and the crafting of nutritionally balanced dishes. That commitment was expressed in the design’s spare geometries, natural materials, and discreet displays of foliage and fresh produce. The space the restaurant was to occupy presented both challenges and unusual opportunities. The clients had leased a two-story space — street floor and basement — formerly occupied by a women’s fashion store. Located in an imposing early 1900s commercial building, it offered generous spaces and tall traditional windows on the street. The redesign retained some appealing features of the former store, notably the ample openings in the street floor, which allow patrons to perceive the entire two-story volume at once, and the dramatic stairwell that links the two levels. Entering patrons cross a glass-railed footbridge to reach the greeter station, which is emblazoned with red squares evoking the Rouge Tomate logo and is set against a wall paneled with larger-scaled red rectangles. To one side, small plants are nestled in a screen woven of strips of white oak, a material integral to Rouge Tomate’s image. Inserts of the signature white oak in the pre-existing walnut flooring delineate the restaurant’s paths and areas. The centerpiece of the street level lounge is the vividly red juice bar, its actual blenders contained in a glass cage to mute their sounds. A wall of back-lit white oak slats serves as the backdrop for this space and the dining room below it. On the lower level, a similar wood-slat configuration partly screens the curved glass enclosure of the brightly lighted display kitchen. A wood-veneered ceiling contributes a warm glow to both the kitchen and the dining room. A ceiling-high triptych by the Norwegian artist Per Fronth depicting oak tree foliage generates the feeling of eating at a picnic table on a sunny day — and adds windows where none existed before. At the opposite end of the dining area, the open stair from the upper level descends beside a shallow pool, in which float steel trays filled with cranberries that reiterate the Rouge Tomate red-squares motif. Projecting into this stairwell, adding to its dynamic atmosphere, are cantilevered dining booths, offering a special feeling of overlooking the restaurant’s activity from a private observation post.
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