Our latest restaurant design for Pastoral is already under construction in Andersonville! Take a sneak peek at the design concept for this restaurant that is coming soon to an Andersonville block near you!
Note: This project is now complete. Final photos HERE!
We are long time fans of Pastoral’s wonderful food and worked with them on the design of their Lakeview restaurant, Bar Pastoral. This newest spot will be the fifth outpost in their growing Artisan Cheese, Bread and Wine empire: a bistro and market for artisan wine and cheese by day, and a restaurant and wine bar called Appellation by night.
We had a blast working out its design and now we can’t wait to sit down in the completed space and have a fine dining experience! We aren’t the only ones. Chicago Mag, Eater, DNAinfo, and the Tribune are all looking forward to the opening as well! You’ll soon be able to find them in Andersonville, on Clark just north of Foster.
Lets take a tour through the best features of the new project.
We worked closely with the Pastoral team to envision a space that would equally serve both the artisan retail and the restaurant dining space components. It was important that both Appellation and the adjacent market feel stylistically linked to the other Pastoral locations
Conceptual Diagramming
We began, as always, with intensive brainstorming to make sure all the bases were covered. The conceptual element is key in any project but with Appellation, we needed to make sure the space could successfully wear many different hats.
As with all Pastoral locations, the market side needs to be inspired by the European market experience but not derivative of any particular location. It needs to be made from authentic materials, but is not intended to slavishly recreate historical interior styles. It needs to be cosy, abundant and inviting.
While keeping all those qualities firmly in mind, we also needed to make sure its is an accessible gourmet market AND a lovely and livable restaurant space (Appellation) open to neighborhood regulars and new enthusiasts alike! Here are just a few of the (many) thumbnail sketches we knocked out as we brainstormed various ways of displaying food available in the market and creating cosy seating for the bistro side.
Ideas and Precedents (ie the Pinterest Phase)
Old world antecedents and inspirational images of beautiful food display helped kick off our design process.
Perspective Sketches
From here we started exploring floor plans and interior perspectives. All of them needed to help work out the relationship between the restaurant and retail aspects of the space.
The Wine Bar and Wine Retail Area: this marks the border between the restaurant and market spaces
Entry and Front Market Area: everyone will enter past the market (giving a tantalizing suggestion of take-me-home to restaurant goers as well as shoppers.
Retail area with Display Divider: eventually we settled on using wine storage and display racks, combined with standing tables to loosely delineate the market side from the restaurant and bar area. During the day the two spaces can flow together and in the evening the market area will be lightly screened from the dinners.
Materials and Existing Conditions
As always, we’ll be working with a variety of sustainable and reclaimed materials, and existing building elements including salvaged pressed tin from Carlson’s Barnwood, and circle sawn Oak counter tops from Viridian Wood. We’re also exposing the structural brick demising walls on either side of the space and these delightful wallpaper decals that we unearthed behind a sheetrock wall.
You can see the antique wallpaper decal fragments in the construction snaps above. We’ll be preserving a small segment of them in the entry area.
Construction is well under way so you can look forward to seeing the restaurant open for business very soon. In the mean time, if you are in Andersonville for City Made this weekend (or just to visit the moss booth there!) you stroll north on Clark and peek in the windows to see the progress. We look forward to running into you at Appellation over a meal and a glass of great wine, very soon.
