New Orleans-based design studio Farouki Farouki has unveiled the Parisian-style brasserie Justine from chef Justin Devillier in the city’s French Quarter area. The theatrical dining experience is enhanced with a series of artful touches that elevates the 200-seat, grand hall-style restaurant.
In Justine’s main, garden-like dining room, a handpainted, pressed tin marquee that Devillier and his wife, Mia, brought stateside from a former Parisian meat counter is suspended above Justine’s open kitchen, while a six-foot-tall cast iron muse statue from the 19th century serves as the focal point of the bar. Antique brass drink rails and large swathes of diamond-patterned smoked glass also punctuate the bar, where screen-printed portraits of Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Degas are installed with stenciled overlays. Two murals infuse a French and local flair.
Reminiscent of a Parisian sidewalk café, the restaurant stretches out to an outdoor dining space anchored by a custom absinthe decanter-inspired fountain alongside lush greenery and weathered masonry walls whose textures are illuminated by candlelight.
