Rustam-Marc Mehta and Tal Schori’s friendship first developed in a third-grade classroom in Armonk, New York, but it deepened when mutual passions sent them off to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island together.
From there, both worked in the arts and media upon graduating, went back to get masters degrees in architecture at Yale, then cut their teeth with industry greats (Mehta spent eight years at Pelli Clarke & Partners; Schori five at Deborah Berke Partners, now TenBerke) before forming their Brooklyn-based studio in 2014.
At GRT Architects, Mehta and Schori preside over a range of residential, commercial, and—thanks to a longterm collaboration with restaurateur and fellow Brown alum Michael Stillman—hospitality projects that honor each site’s visual and material culture.
Stillman, CEO and founder of Quality Branded restaurants in New York and Denver (he originally launched the company as Fourth Wall Restaurants in 2007 with his father Alan, founder of TGI Fridays and Smith & Wollensky, before rebranding in 2016), was drawn to Mehta and Schori during those college years. “They’re incredibly interesting and interested people who pushed me to be more adventurous. They showed me the different layers you could gather creativity from,” recalls Stillman.
Located next to Don Angie in New York, private dining space Don’s Next Door is lined with low slung, ribbed banquettes
Though encouraged to pursue whatever career path he wanted, Stillman followed in his father’s footsteps, cutting his teeth at Union Square Hospitality Group and Smith & Wollensky. “It was that natural inclination to do whatever your parent tells you not to,” he says. In 2006, he opened the AvroKO-designed Quality Meats in New York, followed by a Miami outpost nine years later, as well as Park Avenue, and spinoff Quality Italian.
Don Angie in New York’s West Village, an Italian restaurant from Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli—both of whom previously worked for Stillman—launched in 2017 in partnership with Quality Branded. Stillman sensed it was the right opportunity to connect the emerging restaurateurs and Mehta and Schori’s budding practice. “They were doing some beautiful, thoughtful homes at the time, but it wasn’t about their aesthetic. [It was] more that I knew who they were as people, with an interest in details and history,” Stillman explains.
Mehta and Schori were equally intrigued. “I’m attracted to clients who have strong opinions and a deep font of knowledge that I can bounce my ideas off, and I found talking to Michael, all the way back to college, stimulating,” remembers Mehta.
Acting as a producer, Stillman brought the culinary and design teams together, and the flatiron-shaped building came to life with upside-down arch motifs, glossy mahogany, and a reimagined vinyl checkerboard floor. “We’re not trained as designers, we’re trained as architects and that distinguishes us from other firms doing restaurants,” Schori says. “We are invested in the nuts and bolts and constantly thinking spatially.”
Bold orange banquettes unfold under a wooden lattice ceiling at Bad Roman in New York
Stillman then tapped GRT Architects for Bad Roman, which debuted inside the Shops at Columbus Circle in 2023 (helmed by executive chef Nick Gaube, whose first job out of culinary school was as a line cook at Park Avenue). “For many, Midtown Manhattan is their understanding of New York,” Stillman says. He was eager for Bad Roman to transcend its mall setting and appeal to “a wide swath of people who see the restaurant as a representation of everything going on in New York.”
Mehta and Schori’s strong point of view yielded a maximalist interior with trompe l’oeil mosaics and plaster-clad banquette islands. For Schori, the element of theater intrinsic to hospitality spaces “allowed us to experiment in a way that we wouldn’t have done as comfortably in our other types of projects,” he says.
Most recently, Stillman and GRT Architects reunited with Rito and Tacinelli on the seafood-centric San Sabino, a yellow- and gray-hued dining room up the block from Don Angie, adorned with custom brass sconces and banquettes wrapped in natural hides.
Another yet-to-be-revealed Stillman project led by GRT Architects is in the works, unfolding just like their previous restaurants have, as a dialogue. “Of course you feel a little jittery. You want everyone to like it. You don’t get somewhere worthwhile without experiencing that feeling,” says Mehta. “The fact that we’re willing to go through it and trust each other is a great thing.”
Buttery yellow hues and natural hides create a warm atmosphere at San Sabino restaurant in New York
This article originally appeared in HD’s July 2024 issue.
