“Hearing that part of the scope for this corner spot in Brooklyn would involve a custom storefront is what hooked me first. Before I’d even met Chef Marc — the most wonderful, funny, talented, hard-working, roll-up-his-sleeves and get-it-done client ever — I sat down with a Dahlstrom catalogue and a list of standard steel shapes and started hashing out how this new restaurant would present itself to the neighborhood. The inside was a mess, every surface covered in grease to the point it was dangerous just to walk around, but everything would go, except the existing, beat-up, hardwood floor.

As we started laying things out, the curve of the bar influenced the (compound) curve of the HVAC soffit, which lead us to arch the opening at the bar, and then apply that language to another soffit and the ceiling millwork and before we knew it, we’d collected a medley of interlocking shapes, in every dimension, knotting everything around the central bar. It all comes back to the storefront for me though. My favorite is seeing it from across the street on a dark, rainy night, the glow from inside spilling out onto Smith St. like a lantern, warming the whole neighborhood.” CH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIKA VERIK, JOEY DELEO