BB 5: Om Nom Nom

You win some money and decide to open a restaurant. Looking at the local phone book, there are already over a hundred restaurants in the area. How will yours be different? What will make people flock to your restaurant?

I'm late on my own prompt: how embarrassing.

The thing is, I wanted to create a mockup of my restaurant but it proved to take waaaay longer than I'd expected, so I'm just going to give you what I have and verbally describe the rest.

First off, my restaurant will be in Seattle. This is because, well, I want it to be there. What else can I say? And my plan is so off the wall that maybe I'll find a little niche of loyal customers. But first, I'll need a big city with lots of people and I don't want to leave the Pacific NW.

Second, I think I'd like to call it La 食糧 Deliciosa. "WTF?" You might say. Well, my restaurant will serve both Japanese and Spanish food. Not together, mind you; this isn't some weirdo fusion restaurant that serves paella topped with unagi and masago (even though my name is a hybrid that reads simply "The Delicious Food"). This is two restaurants in one.

Basically, Japanese food is my most favoritest food EVER. And I obviously have an affinity for good Spanish food, and it's always so hard for me to find either that adequately satisfy my cravings. I love Sushi Land of course, because they know what people like and they always use very fresh fish: every Sushi Land I've been to has served perfectly fine sushi. And you can't argue with the price. Spanish food is a bit harder to come by, I believe, because it hasn't turned into a cultural fad amongst the type of people that lives in the Pacific NW. But this past weekend I was at home on the west side and I went to this Spanish restaurant in Portland called The Maiden. It was pretty good, and the price was decent, but some of the mussels were off and they poured vinegar into the oil for the bread and the ceviche was so stupidly spicy that we had to send it back. (Other than all that, it was a good experience.) Therefore, I'd like to get some native, world-class cooks up in my restaurant to blow everyone away.

The layout is where things get a bit tricky. I mentioned I want two restaurants in one, which means I want an area where the Japanese food is served and an area for the Spanish food. But I want people to be able to experience both places, whether they start with tapas and move over to nigiri, or have some sake early in the evening and then take off for a pitcher of sangria. So, the two areas will be separated, but connected with a moat. And to get from one part of the restaurant to the other, you'll have to get into a little gondola and ride across the moat. At each end of the moat there will be dramatic, theater-type curtains pulled back, welcoming you into the other half of La 食糧 Deliciosa, and you'll step up out of the gondola and pick your seating.

(Yes, I realize gondolas have nothing to do with this setup. I just like them. Why have a moat, too? Because that's cooler than a walkway. Okay, fine, there will be a foot path as well. But traveling by gondola would be way more fun, and you know it.)

The decor of my restaurant will be the same on each side. This is the mockup I've created.

(Please click on the image to see it full size and with the proper colors. Why do browser eff with the color of images? Whyyyy?)

Essentially, I decided that I wanted really unique chandeliers and striped gold and maroon wallpaper. I found that chandelier image online a while ago, fell in love with it, and have since come back to grab it for my restaurant. I love it because chandeliers are beautiful and classy and scream wealth at you, but this one is fresh and hip and kind of kitschy. It was a BITCH Photoshopping out all of the white of the background between the beaded bits. But it was worth it.

Then I found those chairs. God, how I love those chairs. (If you can't guess, they're from Ikea.) At first, I planned to use something like this:

Because, how cool would it be to eat at a restaurant where you sit on a chaise lounge like that?? (Okay, this is actually called a fainting couch and it's from Urban Outfitters, but it's sort of chaise-loungey.) In fact, in my dream world, I would have both: the couches in place of traditional booths and the chairs as opposed to regular, boring restaurant chairs. And yes, I fully realize how much square footage I'll have to purchase in order to house all of this oversized furniture. But I'm okay with that, because it's MY dream!

The floor will be hardwood, cleaned twice a day, so if people want to walk around barefoot or something, they can. Maybe I'll make little booties available so you can slip out of your heels and put your fleeced feet up on our chaise-lounge-fainting couch. That sounds nice.

The decor will be the same in both halves of the restaurant, as I mentioned, but the tables will be unique to each area. I would like to put in tables that are colorful and bright, to match the chandeliers. Therefore, the tables will be inspired by my favorite artist from each country: Takashi Murakami in the Japanese half of the restaurant, and Antonio Gaudí in the Spanish half. It would be sooo awesome to have Murakami flower bomb tables:

And tables inspired by the Serpentine benches at one of the coolest, most interesting, most inspiring places in the whole entire world, Park Güell (if you don't know what I'm talking about here, Google it now):

These tables would obviously be refashioned a bit to actually be shaped properly for a table (Like, the flower bomb base will need a flat top) and then the tops will be glass.

So, there you have it. I welcome you to The Delicious Food. (Wouldn't that be hysterical, for your waiter to say that to you? "Welcome to The Delicious Food!" Mwahahahahaha. So dorky.)