Tim Cushman is a musician-turned-chef who picked up ideas around the world before returning to his native Boston, where he and his wife Nancy opened O Ya in a converted warehouse in 2007. The New York Times‘ Frank Bruni hailed it as the best new restaurant in the U.S., and Cushman asked CCS Architecture founder Cass Calder Smith to channel its spirit in a second O Ya, located in New York’s Park South Hotel. “Our goal was to maximize the impact of a 3,000-square-foot space, formerly a tavern, with concrete floors and brick walls,” says Smith. “Tim wanted it to feel funky and casual—a hybrid of new and found elements.”

“I love Japan and especially the small restaurants of Tokyo and Kyoto—tiny refuges from the bustle of city with crafted interiors,” he adds. To give O Ya a strong identity, the sunken forecourt was turned into Japanese garden, with bamboo, pebbles, and a large rock providing a transition from street to interior. The façade is clad in hemlock boards, lightly charred to bring out the grain. Inside the entrance are four booths, each seating up to six. As in Japan, shoji screens can be drawn to shield the booths, but the rest of the space is open, with a long sushi counter and small tables drawn up to a wall bench upholstered in a patterned fabric. That provides flexibility and the spacing of the 60 seats helps to control the noise level without recourse to acoustically absorbent surfaces.

Smith aimed for a feeling of authenticity, a tangible expression of the one-bite dishes that give a Western spin to traditional Japanese preparations. “I always try to think of the cuisine in bringing design and people together,” Smith says. Floors and walls are rubbed but still retain the patina of age. The bar employs big planks of walnut, with a front clad in handcrafted tiles from Sausalito. To maintain its clean lines, the raw fish is stored in refrigerated drawers rather than display cases, while a galvanized duct is suspended from the cedar and sheetrock ceiling.