August 4, 2021

A New Post-Pandemic Restaurant Archetype Emerges Around the Globe

A new post-pandemic restaurant archetype emerges around the globe, from Turin to Bangkok.

The Third Place, St. Petersburg, Russia by DA Bureau

Photography by Sergey Melnikov. 

The courtyard of an abandoned 1843 mansion—used as a railway museum in the pre-Revolution Soviet era and currently being restored and remodeled by this firm—has been transformed into a festive pop-up space for food and art festivals with beachy larch elements, bivalve allusions, and a reflective aluminum-foil curtain on the facade. 

Oceanica, Makhachkala, Russia by Studio Shoo

Photography by Katie Kutuzova.

For this seafood restaurant, the 5-year-old Moscow firm specializing in hospitality dove into marine-inspired elements, employing nautical rope as partitions, wavy coral-colored polycarbonate by windows, and droplet-shape pendant discs, all surrounded by local artist Roman Lozovoy’s aquatic murals and a sea of tinted concrete flooring. 

Samna, Kiev, Ukraine by YOD Design

Photography by Andriy Bezuglov.

With a 19th-century materials palette—oak, leather, copper, steel, brick, plaster—and interiors bathed in a rich, warm glow, the project’s details nod to the exiled Turkish statesman (and possible inspirer of The Count of Monte Cristo) who once lived in the 1797 house that the three-level Middle Eastern eatery now partly occupies. 

Bun Burger, Turin, Italy by Masquespacio

Photography by Gregory Abbate. 

Memphis forms meet millennial colors and fonts at this swimming pool–inspired outpost of a Milan-based chain, its arches, ceramic tile, changes in floor level, and monochromatic palettes helping to create three distinct environments corresponding to three storefront windows. 

Spice & Barley Restaurant, Bangkok by Enter Projects

Photography by William Barrington-Binns.

Evoking amber lager being poured into a tall glass, the striking golden columns that billow up to the 98-foot-high ceiling in this craft-beer lounge are the result of fusing 3D technology with traditional Thai methods of weaving natural rattan, a sustainable material ideal for creating such free-flowing geometries. 

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