Emma Maxwell Design Crafts 12,000 Francs Restaurant

Singapore-based studio Emma Maxwell Design has crafted Hong Kong restaurant 12,000 Francs, named for the cash prize extended to Napoleon Bonaparte for his durable food preservation techniques from 1795.

The contemporary French concept accommodates 50 guests in a setting that references Napoleon and his empire through a sharp, modern lens. A long communal sommelier table welcomes guests with a large bronze cast pig anchored at its center. The pig—a reference to the Napoleon character in George Orwell’s Animal Farm—holds six bottles of chilled “wine in swine” and is surrounded by custom chairs. The open kitchen’s woodfire oven serves as the focal point of the space.

Handblown, honey-toned glass beehive pendant lights illuminate the space in dense clusters, a reference to the Napoleonic bee synonymous with his reign. The ceiling also echoes the theme with a hand-pressed brass metal bee wing pattern that casts the dining room in an amber glow. Walls are dressed in a custom wallpaper designed by Academy Award-nominated set designer Kerrie Brown, whose rich, maximalist pattern recalls the French Chateaus of Napoleon’s time period with sharp, monochromatic honeycomb tiles.