MUSE, a brand new restaurant in Santa Monica, California, evokes visitors with culinary delights and art work in a jewel-box setting. Marc Ange, of his eponymous agency, was tapped to examine the house by chef-owner Fardad Khayami as a showcase for his recent tackle French delicacies within the seashore metropolis.
The epicure and the designer share related influences, so for each, the collaboration was a really perfect one. The chef melds the tastes of Italy, the place Ange was born, with the normal fare of France, the place he was raised. With workplaces in Paris and Los Angeles, Ange innately understands this cross-cultural aesthetic, and he was desirous to seize it for the eatery’s interiors.
His influences had been many for this hospitality challenge, from traditional European model to coastal stylish, which mix collectively within the intimate house. “There are parts of Italian Nineteen Seventies sexiness and French class, with a contact of LA, which creates one thing fully modern,” says Ange.
The principle eating room, which seats 35, exudes a relaxed glamour. This central space is enveloped in white oak (the corridors are clad in walnut) and paired with a coloration palette of heat gold, sienna, and beige tones that improve the intimacy of the house. This wealthy backdrop serves to focus on the spectacular, rotating assortment of artwork that’s unique to the restaurant. For its debut, MUSE options authentic works by celebrated Catalan-Spanish artist Joan Miró.
The comfortable nooks double as a gallery for the items, immediately recognizable for his or her mixture of summary with Surrealist fantasy that the painter-sculptor favored. Miró’s signature splashes of major crimson, blue, and yellow usher in simply sufficient vibrant coloration, but by no means overwhelm. It’s a real feast for the senses, as inventive presentation is discovered not solely on the plates however on the partitions too.
Layers of texture make the compact restaurant appear bigger. Refined curves grace furnishings upholstered in plush velvet. Millwork boasts a collection of flutes and folds that recur elsewhere, which eliminates any onerous edges. This affords a pure, surrounding fluidity as guests mingle or sit and chat on the four-seat bar.
With a collection of cozy nooks, the cocoon-like surroundings invitations dialog and luxury. The temper is elevated by the sculptural fixtures and bespoke furnishings. Objects, additionally designed by Ange, mirror the opposite segments within the restaurant, tied by the frequent threads of form and proportion.
Fantino chandeliers forged a heat glow from above, and the fixtures echo the form of the chair of the identical title, which has a particular bifurcated again. A personal room is about to open later this fall, which Ange conceived as an extension of the restaurant, however with its personal distinctive sides. “Every part at MUSE is linked by the artwork and the design, but bringing their very own surprises,” Ange provides.
For extra on Marc Ange, go to marc-ange.com.
Images by Pablo Enriquez.
