Designing the Dining Experience

The Little Italy brand is synonymous with fine Italian cuisine in India with restaurants across the country. 

Matrika Design Collaborative was engaged in the development of one such franchise outlet and their largest dining space in the city of Mumbai.

The site chosen was a 110 year old colonial building at Charni Road which had earlier served as a popular bar on one of its levels

The design brief stated the need for a fine dine level, kitchen, resto-bar and a ground floor dining space. Given the elaborate brief we initiated a process of re-structuring the space to accommodate the various components and related services in a triangular shaped heritage building by hollowing out the old floors and making use of new building technologies to build the levels within keep in mind the classical facade of the structure.

The fine dine space is punctuated with warm a veneered curio cabinet and a wine bar. Furniture is contemporary and minimalist to meet the requirements and lighting muted to give the uber dining ambience inside the space.

Vito, the rest bar which sits on the top most floor of the building has been acoustically shielded using high grade insulation which in turn is aesthetically stitched into floral wall panels for the space