Hospitality Design - October 2015 - 168

back space

talking food with

Photo by EMILY ANDREWS

jun aizaki
Owner and Founder, Crème Design
Brooklyn, New York
1
Favorite Crème-designed
restaurant
> RedFarm in [New York's] West Village

[1]. For a restaurant to be outstanding, the
food, service, and environment must work
together cohesively to tell a story. RedFarm
has a classic farmhouse feel and inventive
dim sum menu, bringing a refreshing green
market sensibility to contemporary Chinese
dining.
Photo by FANNY ALLIÉ

Favorite restaurant Crème
didn't design
> La Côte Bleue in Bouzigues, France, which

is a fishing town known for oysters. My wife's
family is from that region, and they've been
going to this restaurant since long before
she was born. It has outdoor seating that
overlooks an amazing bay filled with oyster
farms.

Biggest restaurant pet peeve
> Inappropriate sound levels-it's important

to take into account the ambiance and the
experience wanted for a space.

First thought when entering a
restaurant
> 'Where do I want to sit?' When [designing

a] restaurant, we aim to give each seat its
own unique experience. Every seat can't be
the best in the house, but they all can have
something special about them.

Cooking at home
> I make handmade tofu. I especially enjoy

cooking things we harvest from the garden.
Also, my dad recently retired in Japan and
he's taking cooking classes. I look forward to
cooking with him.

168

October 2015 hospitalitydesign.com

Story behind recent Crème
project, the Vine

2
Photo by NICOLE FRANZEN

> We wanted the Vine [2, at the Eventi

Dining scene I am watching

Hotel in New York] to be an extension of the
wonderful outdoor space that's adjacent,
and to make it feel almost like a greenhouse
with a library so the design and materials
complement the fresh menu by chef Laurent
Tourondel.

> Williamsburg in Brooklyn. It's the

Secret to successful designerchef collaborations

Restaurant memorabilia

> It's crucial to connect on a level of

depending on the restaurant-things you're
allowed and not allowed to collect.

craftsmanship and gain mutual respect at
that hands-on level. It's also very important
to listen to the ideas of collaborators to
better understand their process and feed
off each other's energy and creativity. We
pay close attention to the details, just as
a chef would. We have projects where we
were so excited that we handpainted murals,
or sculpted and installed signs for the
restaurants.

surrounding neighborhood to our studio
and where I live. We're in the middle of a
fast-transforming neighborhood and it's
interesting to see it develop; it's like being
in a social experiment.

> I collect matches, cards, and menus,

Greatest lesson learned
designing restaurants
> The power of food always humbles me.

Not just restaurants, but eating in general-
it's such an important part of our daily lives,
it's always around us, and it concerns so
much of what we talk about. I like how it
brings people together.
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Hospitality Design - October 2015

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