Design & dining: Notes on building a restaurant with JJ Acuña

What do you think the most important design facets are when it comes to F&B?  

Obviously, as front-of-house designers, the job of JJ Acuña / Bespoke Studio is to make sure the customer experience is transformative and really takes the diner to a different world. The dining space need not be extra or iconic; it can also be a memorable space if it’s quiet, introspective, or even poetic.

We make sure that materials make sense for the brand direction and for the brand and the food on the table. Are the fabrics on the seats suitable for F&B? You need to make sure that they don’t lose shape, stretch, scratch, or rip. We make sure that seating variety exists just in case a diner was to come back three times a month alone, with a date, or with a group. Even though we are not kitchen suppliers or HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) engineers we work as best as possible with them to make sure that the whole space doesn't smell, especially with an open kitchen concept.

There are so many things to think about that weigh into the creation of a restaurant space, and our studio needs to make sure all things are considered.

What do you think some restaurants' biggest mistakes are with their designs?  

From a design perspective, I think restaurants that try too hard like putting in all their concepts at once without editing is a big mistake; because if
there’s visual clutter, the food on the table won’t be able to compete with all that. I think restaurants that copy any concept from magazines or Pinterest will be unmemorable. Bad lighting, either too much or not enough, can kill the experience. Exposed bulbs are never good. Bad acoustics or music that is too loud is certainly a vibe killer. Loud air conditioning and extraction systems or HVAC systems that don’t do enough to clear the air of smell make for a poor dining experience too. Deficient material fixings on the walls next to the diner, whether it’s weak wallpapering, painting, or tile application, can damage the mood. Chairs or tables that wobble can take someone out of the present experience. Fabric that pulls, rips, or loses form can affect the experience as well.

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To me, viewing things from the consumer/diner perspective is so important. Can you share your thoughts on this and how it relates to restaurant design?  

I’m a foodie and I love to travel. I’m the type that stalks chefs and makes reservations for restaurants before I get to that city. So as someone who loves staying in cool hotels, trying out the best Negronis or wines, and going straight for a tasting menu with wine pairing, it’s so great to now be a part of the ecosystem that gets to craft these experiences. I also love a great taco truck or having roadside Thai eats. Great design is making sure that the package of the experience is wrapped in a way that makes sense for that experience. With a taco truck, how would one sit around the truck or lean on the truck, and how would food be presented on the ledge separate from the point of transaction? For a fine dining experience, how would one be greeted at the host table, and led to the bar to wait for the party to arrive? How would they be led to their seat in the main dining room, and be spoken to by the host or server? What are the journey points or what is the sense of arrival like?

The most important thing to remember is that diners are demanding but are also forgiving if their expectations are managed at the get-go. What are they walking into? Fast food? Fine dining? Casual dining? And what will they get from this experience? Manage expectations through design. Be authentic, honest, invest in a restaurant reasonably, and charge diners reasonably as well.

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In this era of social media, how do you incorporate lighting design into your plans? To me, lighting is so important in mood-setting for ambience, and for photographs too. Could you share your thoughts on the topic?  

We always work with lighting consultants to make sure that everything is diffused, lighting is balanced on horizontal and vertical surfaces, there are no shadows for food photography, and that the architectural details of the space don’t disappear in the shadows or the dark. We also make sure that surfaces on the table and floor look good for food photography, and that artificial and natural lighting look great on the face of each diner.

We aim for our CRI (Colour Rendering Index) to be close to 100% at all times of the day; This makes sure the plated food looks true to real colour from lunch until dinner. Through proper lighting, we make sure that faces look good for photographs too, so this means that more than one light source in the space is needed: horizontally from walls, vertically from the ceiling, outside from the sun, and everywhere in between. Lighting is basically set design, it’s holistic, and 360–it’s just not about lining lights up on the ceiling in a row if that makes sense. Also, colour temperature is generational and cultural- make sure when deciding on a colour temperature that it fits your market, product, and customer base.

You are known for your speciality to be designing beautiful, functional restaurant spaces. What have you learned along the way? 

The biggest lesson I’ve learned about designing restaurants is that this is a business of love, passion, and sharing goodness with others. I’ve been designing restaurants, bars, and cafe concepts since 2016 and I’ve learned that I love doing this job. It’s really so much fun to do! I was a foodie, a food and lifestyle blogger as a young architect, and with this job, I get to intersect my passions of design, travel, and eating with our studio works. Additionally, after all these years designing restaurants, I learned all the pragmatic stuff mentioned above of course, but I also learned that there is so much goodwill from all the restaurateurs I’ve worked with, in wanting to really make a difference in their city’s culinary landscape.

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