Chef Thomas Keller and designer Adam D. Tihany first met in the 1980s when Keller, dreaming of opening his first eatery, took a restaurant design class from Tihany at the School of Visual Arts in New York. The pair later went on to collaborate on the chef’s renowned Per Se restaurant in New York, as well as numerous outposts of his Bouchon and Bouchon Bakery. And while Tihany has extensive experience in cruise ship design, their latest project is groundbreaking for Keller: the Grill for Seabourn Cruise Line, a classic American chophouse-style eatery. It recently debuted on Seabourn Quest (in the space of the former signature restaurant); will roll out on Sojourn and Odyssey when they are retrofitted; and will find a home on Encore (with a different layout) and Ovation, launching this December and in 2018, respectively.
Last month, we sat down with Keller and Tihany at Per Se where they discussed the new concept, its design, and how their relationship mirrors that of a married couple.
Why did you choose Seabourn for your new restaurant, the Grill?
Thomas Keller: This was a restaurant concept we’d started to think about and conceptualize and formalize about five years ago, in preparation for the restaurant we will have at the Hudson Yards [development in New York]. We started to think about how we could develop it—writing recipes, sourcing ingredients, talking about serviceware, what the presentation was going to be. All of these elements of conceptually having a restaurant without having a restaurant. We had the opportunity with the closure of the French Laundry [in Yountville, California, for renovations] to beta test it: first at Ad Lib, a pop-up restaurant at Silverado [Resort, in Napa Valley]. At the same time, I’d been talking to Seabourn for about eight years. They’d been after me for so long. The key to getting what you want is patience and persistence—that’s what I always say. It went from the conceptual point of view, from the pop-up point of view, to a cruise ship. The style of restaurant, the style of food, the era it comes from, really work as this idea of nostalgia on a cruise liner or ocean liner.
On Quest, wooden fins on the Grill’s wall of windows can be adjusted according to the day’s natural light.
What did it mean for you two to work together again?
TK: To me it meant comfort. To be able to have somebody whose designs I’ve always admired from the first time I saw them, to beginning to work with him in 1996 developing the design of Bouchon, and of course moving into Per Se. I knew that he knew what I meant and could execute.
Adam Tihany: People hit it off. There’s no formula to that or prescription. People meet and it’s destiny. They understand each other, they feed off each other—he throws something at me, I throw back at him something else. We’re an old couple, kind of, collaborating. I guess we are the lucky couple. We’re still married, in a way. We found a road we can stride on, move forward with ideas, concepts, discuss things in a friendly manner, and fight when we need to fight.
A rendering of the larger Grill space on the Encore ship, with its rose gold wine tasting table and a staircase fronting a two-story backlit art wall.
Tell us about the outpost on the Seabourn Quest.
TK: It is just extraordinary. When you walk on it, you have this feeling—a sense of comfort, this understanding. You want to sit in the room.
AT: It’s a challenging room. It’s very small, narrow, long, and it has an entire wall of windows. In ships we don’t have ceiling heights; there are some very strict limitations. We wanted to create this cocoon-like restaurant. It’s a very comfortable, sexy area. No matter where you sit, you’re surrounded by sensuous materials, by beautiful colors. On a boat, it’s rare you get that sense of intimacy.
TK: It looks like a Pullman car on a train.
What did you want the restaurant to reflect?
TK: The Grill comes from a specific time in our history. In America, that’s the 1950s and ’60s, revolving not necessarily around any national cuisine, or ethnic cuisine, but what’s called continental cuisine. We were the most optimistic people at that time—we were in celebration of ourselves. After the war, restaurants became places of celebration, these social gatherings. That’s what this restaurant needed to be.
The masculine dining room of the Grill on the Quest features curved wood coffers, warm brown and tan leather seating, and a marble-topped wine decanting station.
How did you translate that into the design?
AT: Thomas spoke eloquently about the spirit and the ethos. Where I go is to research the period—what was the language of these public spaces? It’s an interesting combination between the British pub, the American steakhouse, and corporate America. Corporate America was building the most interesting and thoughtful and sophisticated interiors, using great art. People were cultured and sophisticated, besides being rich. It’s a lost era. I took these three incentives, or nostalgic signposts, and distilled it into the Grill on Seabourn Quest.
Besides designing on a ship, what were some of the other challenges?
AT: In the dining room, the biggest challenge was the window wall. That was where the fins came in. The whole window side has these beautiful wooden fins you can adjust according to the light streaming in. You don’t fee like you’re in a closed room but you don’t feel like the food gets washed away by the strong daylight. And you can regulate it. It’s a functional detail.
TK: They can be very nautical if you want them to be [or] they can be a wooden wall. It depends on how you feel about it.
Any other favorite elements?
TK: We built a carving station at the end of the corridor. We bring out the roasted chicken, take it back to the station, and a chef carves it. It’s not truly tableside service, but you feel like there’s a chef in the dining room with you, which was an important part.
AT: We have a beautiful wine decanting station with a great wine cabinet. It’s very personal.
TK: There’s a small wonderful bar in the front—people can stand at the bar while they’re waiting and have a martini. It’s this very romantic kind of experience and something different from anything else that’s on the ship. [The restaurant] only seats 45 people and we only do 60 people a night, so in reality, a guest who’s on a seven-day cruise can only eat there once. There’s limited access to it, which also creates this desire to be there and really enjoy the moment.
The larger Encore ship’s Grill design is different from the rest of the fleet.
AT: It’s a much bigger space. It was designed as a larger restaurant. It has a large bar-lounge and a very different kind of layout. But it has similarities—the furniture, the carpet, the service style. It’s an expanded version.
TK: One of the important aspects of this restaurant is music. We developed the playlist for the Grill on the Quest, Sojourn, and Odyssey. At Encore [there’s a piano], so we’ll have musicians who are in the room, harking back to that period in American history when you had those kinds of restaurants. We wanted it to be as romantic and special as it is on the smaller ships.
AT: A different special but special nevertheless.
