The Quality Branded restaurant empire has expanded with the opening of Bad Roman, a modern Italian concept located on the third floor of the Shops at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. The 6,500-square-foot eatery’s whimsical menu informs a maximalist interior design by GRT Architects.
“We agreed to aim for something maximal and playful, to create a stark contrast to the polite elegance of the Shops,” says GRT founding partner Tal Schori. “We took an approach that was unconstrained by fealty to a style or fixed point of reference but winks at Italian visual culture much the way the cuisine riffs on classics.”
A palette of stone, tile, plaster, and mirror define Bad Roman and allude to elaborate buildings, like the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, via layered textures and colors. Red and white travertine are configured in an irregular checkerboard shape alongside intricate glazed ceramic tile, while trompe l’oeil mosaics recall a small pond of water in the restaurant’s inviting “grotto.”
A bar clad with marble and mirror serves as a key focal point with an organic form echoed across Bad Roman in homage to the Roman strigil motif. Islands of orange banquettes bloom through the dining room below lush greenery suspended from wood coffered ceilings. Gridded dropped ceilings provide acoustic support, accented by curvaceous, locally blown glass light fixtures.
Custom fixtures, formed akin to a flowing river, in the restaurant’s two private dining rooms also command focus. Rounding out the concept are floor-to-ceiling windows, which frame vistas of Central Park.
“We aimed for a sense of fun and awe, a feeling of being totally transformed as you step from the mall into restaurant,” adds fellow founding partner Rustam-Marc Mehta. “It’s fair to say GRT’s default setting is a touch more restrained so we let that side of our voice speak alongside the more exuberant mood we were trying to create.”
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