One evening last fall, during opening week of Tatiana—the flagship restaurant at New York’s Lincoln Center from Nigerian-American chef Kwame Onwuachi—performances were unfolding at both David Geffen Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House. Inside Tatiana was Preeti Sriratana, partner and managing director of Modellus Novus (MN), the local architecture studio that brought the buzzing space to life.
Lines of tuxedo-clad attendees peered into Tatiana’s floor-to-ceiling expanses of glass as they waited to enter the theaters, and for Sriratana, it was “a powerful moment,” he recalls. “What’s beautiful is that people can see straight into the restaurant, into the kitchen. You can see bartenders making drinks, the staff at the service stations, all the people who are normally hidden behind walls.”
Among the dining room’s highlights are custom smoked oak and leather chairs from Denmark and the same stone flooring that covers the outdoor plaza
This sense of welcoming transparency is what drives Tatiana. Named for Onwuachi’s sister, it’s a deeply personal endeavor. “I wanted to bring New York to the forefront and tell the stories of the people who built it through food, music, and design,” he explains. “I grew up in the Bronx, so it was important for me to do that and give a voice to my community.”
Located in David Geffen Hall, the former Avery Fisher Hall renovated by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Diamond Schmitt Architects, Tatiana signals a daring new direction for the storied performing arts complex. “Lincoln Center was focused on the next-generation patron,” says Sriratana, and a Black chef unapologetically showcasing Afro-Caribbean cooking with distinct New York inflections is indeed “pretty bold and forward-thinking.”
Retro photography set against iridescent graphite tile greets guests at Tatiana’s entry
Onwuachi and the MN team “were on the same wavelength from the beginning,” points out Onwuachi. “They completely understood my vision, the cuisine, and what it would mean to people.” These threads melded through MN’s exploration of Tatiana as a civic rather than hospitality project. “In order to think about the future, you have to celebrate the past. And for us, the past was looking to San Juan Hill,” says Sriratana, referencing the working-class Afro-Caribbean neighborhood demolished in the 1950s to make way for the Lincoln Center campus. That eradication is poignantly acknowledged in Tatiana’s contrasting layout, a strikingly open configuration that symbolizes inclusivity.
Gritty yet unexpectedly poetic materials evocative of the South Bronx in the 1990s, the backdrop Onwuachi was raised against, spawned an “Ugly Beautiful” concept that shaped the interior. For example, the image of “asphalt on a hot summer day just after the rain with a gorgeous wet, oily slick to it,” explains Sriratana, translated to swaths of dark gray glazed tile that “echo that iridescence.” Two imposing columns clad in chromate-treated steel, a protective finish used on tools like wrenches, maintain the glimmering sheen while infusing the space with an industrial aura. “From a distance, there is a slight bronze air to them,” Sriratana adds.
MN “extracted a bunch of design elements from my childhood and the city in general,” says Onwuachi, urban references that include anodized aluminum chain curtains that recall chain-link fencing, velvet banquettes that reinterpret park benches, and a raw acoustic plaster ceiling buoyed by ethereal pendants that mimic clouds. “That was one idea I had to tie it all together,” he points out. “They represent me as a dreamer, head in the clouds.”
The Cardi B-inspired private dining room maintains a connection with the energetic dining room through translucent glass
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