A local favorite, Los Angeles’ California Chicken Café (CCC) boasted casual, healthy dining but lacked a design to match. “They always received rave reviews on their food, but they wanted the same accolades for the entire dining experience,” says locally-based designer Cole Garrison of Cole Garrison Design. With seven restaurants already established, this flagship design would premier the restaurant’s upgraded look in Chatsworth, California.
“Our main aim was to give casual diners the feeling that they were in an upscale restaurant that you might find in any great old city, while maintaining a connection to California,” explains Garrison, who collaborated with another local designer, Alex Monis, on the project. Taking inspiration from Garrison’s early memories of an old San Franciscan church, the space mixes plain painted gyp board walls with a decorative ceiling and marble and metallic accents⠯⠯all under charred wood-finished ceilings.
Suggesting the Japanese siding technique Shou Sugi Ban, the ceilings combine wooden beams with a contrasting outline adorned with curving designs. “The ceilings are where we really had fun,” comments Garrison. The shapes in the soffits and the exposed beams in the ceilings both temper acoustic reverberation and provide visual interest. “We felt like the shapes of the space were enough and we didn’t need a lot of color on the walls,” he adds. A monochromatic texture of charcoal metallic-finished brick breaks up the plain walls, and hex tiles, mirroring a chicken wire pattern, recall the restaurant’s main dish.
The subtle chicken motif carries into the dining area, where the banquettes are separated with antiqued chicken wire mirrored glass dividers. Weathered black leather tufted booths complement classic Thonet bentwood chairs. “Though these chairs may have seemed like an overly obvious choice for a café restaurant, nostalgia was something we wanted to encourage,” says Garrison. Oak bench seating inspired by old church pews offer yet another perch.
The center booths and overhead pendant lighting help anchor the space and “avoid the cafeteria effect,” says Garrison. Three window walls, concrete floors, and a tongue and groove ceiling with string lights form the second seating area. “This captures the feeling of being outdoors, which we think is an essential element of anything that wants to be considered Californian,” he adds. In the takeout area, an opal globe pendant with chicken wire net brings back the chicken motif.
Throughout the dining space, the lighting puts the attention on the food. “CCC is proud of their food and they like to put it on display,” says Garrison. Decorative globe lights and recessed spotlights focus on the white food service counter. Hanging from ropes, burlap dome lights add texture and define an overhead plane above the booths. “Creating a glow from within the building was important to us,” explains Garrison. Mid century-inspired sconces counterbalance the traditional elements with aged metal exteriors.
“We wanted to render the space in materials that were unexpected but not out of place,” says Garrison. “In the end we were able to deliver a restaurant that felt like home to the staff and like a destination for the diners.”
