With its macho-elegant appeal, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in New York-part of the Dallas-bred mini-chain-has long been a bastion of the power lunch. So when sister restaurant Del Frisco’s Grille opened a few blocks away in the middle of Rockefeller Center last month, targeting a younger, more casual demographic, the Johnson Studio in Atlanta was tasked with creating a fittingly upbeat space that also stayed true to classic Del Frisco’s elements.

Keith Schutz, project architect, encountered a number of obstacles along the way, from converting a former retail space into a restaurant, to controlling the dramatic display of 4,500 wine bottles, to building new stairs to connect the restaurant with the kitchen below.

“It needed to have its own identity, but still relate back by using some similar design elements,” describes Juliana Kerschen, the interior designer on the project, who says the 8,300-square-foot Del Frisco’s Grille was intended to be “a little brother version” of the original.

This connection is most notable in the Grille’s bar area, where the steakhouse’s braided stair rail is reinterpreted on the edge of the bar, lamps, and scattered metal rods found inset into the rough-sawn wood plank ceiling.

Stained concrete, blackened steel, and gray ‘barn wood’ lend an urban-industrial feel while distressed leather booths, oversized burlap drum pendants, and chocolate brown hues ensure the space maintains warmth and comfort for both “the business person wearing a suit and the jeans-wearing tourist,” as Kerschen points out.

The bar, Kerschen adds, may be the space’s most striking feature with its high-polished brass top-a nod to Rockefeller Center-glass and steel ceiling above, and oven visibly churning out flatbreads: “This area gives you a sense of arrival when you first enter the space.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise it’s also a hit with the happy hour masses.