Gabellini Sheppard

Nicole's Restaurant is located on the lower level of the Nicole Farhi Boutique on East 60th Street in New York. The restaurant is visible from the street and flooded with natural light by a dramatic ground level floor opening that creates a double height atrium the entire width of the facade. Entry to the boutique and restaurant begins with passage across a bridge of water-white glass and American walnut wood that spans the 26-foot-high front atrium, exposing and defining the interior architectural plaster facade.

The 4,000 square-foot, 120-seat restaurant is reached by a walnut stair floating between the suspended ground level boutique and the restaurant reception area on the lower level. Custom reception furniture in solid American walnut was designed in collaboration with George Nakashima Woodworkers. The restaurant level is recessed and connected to the lower level men's boutique and the newly debuted home collection area by several sets of cascading bluestone and walnut steps.

The main focus of the restaurant is the illuminated water-white glass cube suspended above the raised bluestone plinth that houses the open kitchen. Kitchen activity is visible through a clear band in the translucent cube. A floating double height wall plane surrounded by a halo of ambient light hovers above a custom curved bench extending the full length of the restaurant wall opposite the kitchen.

Within the atrium space, the bar area is punctuated by a 30-foot-long luminescent Estremoz bar table. Soft blue light emanates from the recessed bar area, visible through openings in the lower level exterior facade.