Wes Anderson’s finely wrought visual universe was so beloved by the team behind the two-story, 4,000-square-foot Feast India Co.—cheekily dubbed the Pink Zebra—that the restaurant is an elaborate homage to the director’s knack for surrealism. “The idea to add funk to the pink color was to establish a connection between the old British Raj city of Kanpur and the quirkiness of Anderson,” notes Sanchit Arora, head architect at New Delhi-based Renesa Architecture Design Interiors Studio.

Situated within one of the oldest buildings in Kanpur, the city once known as Cawnpore, the Pink Zebra is a fantastical playground that drips in an Art Nouveau quality thanks to its pervasive blush tone and geometric motifs, which help “overcome the boredom of a simple restaurant and bar experience,” Arora points out, “and to imagine the unimaginable through its experience.”

Embracing pink, a color synonymous with the British Raj, is a way to honor colonial architecture while simultaneously breaking free from its constraints. Indeed, this whimsical cotton candy hue acquires new, contemporary meaning when paired with an array of zany, almost psychedelic, black and white stripes across the floor, walls, and even lampshades and a bathroom door. “We used certain bizarre elements to break the monotony that came through with the zebra stripes,” he adds. Natural light filtered in between window and ceiling slats amplifies the space, dousing it in inviting warmth. “Though it’s risky, it paid off,” he says.