Before Pizza Nova took over the waterfront Newport Beach space that formerly housed a quintessential dive bar, “It was as dark and cluttered as you would imagine any good dive bar to be,” says Meagan Hurst, senior designer at Costa Mesa, California-based Studio McCormack. “We were lucky in the sense that the building interior had a reasonable amount of character in the architecture itself, and of course you can’t beat the waterfront location.”
With the coastal locale and the Italian menu in mind, the team’s affordable solution for the shadowy space was to remove everything that wasn’t an architectural element and paint the walls and ceiling white. “Our goal was a design that would invoke an Old World Italian feeling that at the same time seems natural in coastal Southern California,” says Hurst. Elements like the bartop, which is made from reclaimed wine barrel staves, along with brightly colored and patterned tile on the floors and fireplace, evoke the back-in-time vibe. Dark wood flooring—the only carryover from the former bar—adds to the rustic palette.
The modern coastal design aspect comes from the white-painted wood sheathing and beams in the ceiling, white-painted brick walls, and an updated version of raised panel detailing at the bar and on the non-brick walls. The bar seats’ floral-print linen with a pop of red vinyl also makes a statement. “The barstools were really a focal point for the project,” Hurst says. “They added amazing character to the overall feeling of the space.”
In the dining areas, booths are upholstered in blue vinyl, and a sunroom offers a more casual aesthetic with booth-back upholstery made from natural fibers and open weave fabric recalling beach totes. A pewter-toned metal inlay with solid wood edging covers the freestanding tables. “The tabletops were specially designed elements that bridged the Italian and coastal aesthetics,” explains Hurst. Echoing a wood trestle farmhouse table, a communal table near the bar is topped with a glossy glazed red tile inlay.
“We had to be creative to make the end product look cohesive as well as uniquely Pizza Nova in this special location,” Hurst explains. Set right on the water, the restaurant even offers a dock for diners to arrive via boat—though most enter from the street and walk through a back patio and a corridor of brick walls into the restaurant. “It’s here that the guest really gets a sense for the freshness of the menu,” says Hurst.
Because the eatery is known for its wood-fired pizza and other menu items, the team brought in a local artist to create a large mural of the menu on one of the entrance walls. “Pizza Nova also takes pride in using the freshest ingredients and making everything from scratch on the premises, so we decided to really show that off,” she adds. Wooden pizza peels in a variety of shapes hang in the dining space function as unconventional wall art.
“The time and budget constraints pushed our team more than we have ever been as designers to think critically and creatively,” says Hurst. She adds that although they used buy-out fixtures for the lights to save time, with the help of the contractor they installed a light fixture over the bartop made of draped corded filament bulbs and a metal framework. Lines of festoon lights across the sunroom enhance the idea of an open-air deck.
“It was such a radical change just to go from the dark, dingy, and cluttered interior of the old tenant to clean and fresh white walls and ceilings,” Hurst says. “I think it is truly amazing what a complete transformation the space went through.”
