When AvroKO set out to reimagine the quintessential steakhouse, they knew they weren’t just designing spaces; they were crafting entire worlds. William Harris, Co-Founder and Principal, describes the journey through some of their recent projects—Nuri Steakhouse in Dallas, Bourbon Steak at New York’s JW Marriott Essex House, and Chicago Rare in Doha as one of merging tradition with provocative new perspectives. These aren’t simply restaurants—they’re living tributes to cultural heritage, the drama of Art Deco, and the unexpected beauty of unconventional materials.
In Dallas, Nuri’s spaces pulse with cyberpunk energy and the cool elegance of celadon hues, evoking the spirit of Korean craft within a futuristic vision. At Bourbon Steak, Art Deco meets Art Nouveau with rich rust hues, sculptural lighting, and nods to Central Park’s verdant tranquility, creating a dialogue between nature and opulence. Meanwhile, Chicago Rare brings the grandeur of Chicago’s 1920s architecture to Qatar, channeling the era’s spirited resilience with bold geometries and vintage-inspired scenes.
Through this collection of designs, Harris reveals how AvroKO’s philosophy, coined as “Hospitable Thinking®,” brings a fresh intensity to each project—drawing diners into spaces that resonate on both sensory and emotional levels. It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about crafting moments that linger long after a meal is finished, anchoring each restaurant in its cultural and architectural heritage, yet pulling it forward into a surprising, modern narrative.
Each of your recent steakhouse projects—Nuri, Bourbon Steak, and Chicago Rare—draws from Art Deco influences, while also paying homage to the cultural context of each location. Can you walk us through how your design process adapts Art Deco to fit both modern aesthetics and specific cultural heritage, such as Korean ceramics for Nuri and Chicago’s architectural history for Chicago Rare?
With all of our projects at AvroKO, we establish unique and sometimes surprisingly disparate core concept pillars that drive the design, giving our spaces a sense of place that’s both familiar and completely new. In this way, we create a unique tapestry of conceptual aesthetics and narrative that can allow the bridging of quite distinct styles, such as Art Deco and Korean craft. For example, for Nuri, our San Francisco studio created directions we dubbed “Romantic Deco,” “Textures of Asia,” and “Cyberpunk Culture.” Each of these design directions informs different elements of the space. The restaurant has an architectural design centered around elegant, soft art-deco geometries, the color palette is inspired by Korean ceramics, and Cyberpunk elements add a futuristic touch seen in the custom lighting fixtures and sleek metallic details and finishes.
For Chicago Rare, our London studio sought to create a modern interpretation of the vintage Chicago steakhouse. With the Windy City as their muse, they pulled from iconic architect Louis Sullivan’s use of strong geometric form and botanical sculptural ornamentation, 1920s prohibition, and the evolution of the city’s moveable bridges allowing navigation of its seminal waterways. That last approach allows an element of modernity to enter the concept that’s most evident in the custom-made Art Deco-inspired lighting and furniture found throughout the restaurant. A curated collection of vintage prints and photographs serves as an exploration of Chicago over the years and further alludes to the passage of time and the evolution it brings.
Art Deco seems to be making a resurgence across the broader design landscape. Do you see this as a trend, or do you believe there’s a deeper connection between this style and today’s interior design world? How do you ensure this revival feels fresh and not merely nostalgic?
Art Deco sensibilities have certainly been reemerging into the world of interiors for many years now and will likely still have influence in the near future. Rather than just a trending resurgence of a style, Art Deco has been speaking to a trove of designers who have been seeking more luxury, glamour, and a sense of grand optimism. The most successful designs with staying power will be the ones inspired by the movement while not mimicking it, and ones that weave the core tenants of Art Deco into a broader and more complex matrix. If one is inspired by Art Deco, it should be but one ingredient in a more complex palate of strategies to conjure a space that can deftly toy between the balance of both historical weight and modern freshness.
With all three restaurants, there seems to be a focus on combining tradition and modernity, whether it’s through cyberpunk influences at Nuri or the speakeasy culture at Chicago Rare. How do you strike a balance between paying homage to historical design elements and introducing innovative, forward-thinking concepts?
We love combining tradition and modernity—and the artistry is in finding that balance with the hopes of creating something entirely new. There is no secret formula, but our teams have a lot of talent in finding the connective tissue in complimentary nuance and working in the delight of contradiction, conjuring surprising results that become evocative and memorable.
In your design for Nuri, you seamlessly blend Korean celadon ceramics and cyberpunk elements. What were some of the challenges in integrating such diverse inspirations, and how did you ensure they worked harmoniously within the restaurant’s architecture?
The integration of these two concepts, while initially seeming disparate, works well because our studio allows them to guide different elements of the design in a way that creates a natural harmony. Korean celadon ceramics primarily guide the restaurant’s color palette, while Cyberpunk culture gives Nuri an unexpected futurist influence.
For example, the main dining room’s banquettes and furniture are upholstered in soft velvets and leather in celadon shades, and small fabric hand-made bojagi dividers hint at traditional Korean textile arts and forms. Meanwhile, the arched light fixtures are inspired by cyberculture style—appearing overhead like watchful eyeballs, reflecting the evening’s events in their glossy brass and glass components.
In the main bar area, the cyberpunk influence alludes to computing technologies. A glowing ceiling made of custom-extruded metalized curves adds a dimension of circuitry and milled custom diffuser covers are reminiscent of the heat exhaust and cooling needed for massive computing operations.
Chicago Rare at the Four Seasons Doha draws from Louis Sullivan’s work, Chicago’s waterways, and prohibition-era aesthetics. How did you translate these very geographically specific inspirations into a setting within Qatar, while still maintaining cultural relevance to its locale?
A Chicago-inspired Steakhouse might not be the first thing you expect to find in the Four Seasons Doha, but that essence translated beautifully into a concept that feels uniquely grounded in its location. The design draws from the menu and culinary experience to transport guests into a different era while still offering a sense of place.
While the restaurant’s dark interior draws inspiration from Chicago’s history—the influential architecture of Sullivan, the speakeasies of the prohibition period, and the evolution of the city’s waterways—the brighter, lush pergola and outdoor dining terrace are inspired by the Greek and Mediterranean immigrant communities of Chicago; a narrative that feeds well into uninterrupted panoramic views of the Arabian Gulf beyond. The themes from the interior seamlessly flow outside through bespoke, handmade relief terracotta tiles on the walls inspired by Sullivan’s architecture and arched windows that fully open in good weather, expertly tying the two narratives together.
Bourbon Steak takes inspiration from both its historic hotel and nearby Central Park. What role does the restaurant’s surrounding environment play in the design process, and how does the New York landscape inform the choice of materials and textures used within the space?
With this restaurant being in such a historic location in an iconic part of New York City, it was important to us that we pay homage to both of those influences and let them guide the design. The wider hotel had an incredible structure for us to work with. The JW Marriott Essex House was first conceived in the Art Deco period but was completed as the Art Nouveau and International movements began to take over. While the architecture is a modern interpretation with a continuous push and pull between the Art Deco and Nouveau periods, the custom lighting throughout takes on the era’s opulent details and materiality. For example, the upside-down candelabra shapes are a playful nod to the lustrous dinner parties of the roaring ‘20s.
The park across the street feeds into the design through large viewing windows looking out onto Central Park South from both the bar room and main dining room. Greenery is found inside the restaurant acting as a bridge from the interior to the Park through carefully curated glazed planters, two large trees featured center-stage in the main dining room, amplified with built-in hanging shelves holding trailing plants meant to convey an indoor courtyard experience that highlights the existing skylight towards the back of the restaurant. As a finishing touch, large painted tiled artworks in the Art Nouveau style showcase the different flora and fauna of Central Park, expertly crafted by Silverhill Atelier. The Art Nouveau movement is often inspired by natural forms and the sinuous curves of plants and flowers, making it a natural fit for the space.
The works of Art Deco fashion illustrator, Georges Lepape, also inspired a series of panels in the bar/lounge area that highlight the fashion-inspired details often found in his work. Fun illustrations with nostalgic nods to traditional steakhouses are hung throughout, showcasing different elements of New York City’s iconic dining scene.
Your designs feature a remarkable level of attention to detail, especially in the use of custom materials—like the tanker truck backplate light fixture at Nuri or the fire-kiln ceramic tiles at Bourbon Steak. What drives your decision-making when selecting such bold and unconventional materials, and how do these pieces contribute to the overall dining experience?
We always strive to find novel and artful ways to bring a concept to life. It sets our projects and practice apart. This often requires extraordinary effort, but we believe that the uniqueness of the artful moments, the apparent levels of commitment and care needed to pull them off, along with the depth of meaning and narrative authenticity is directly translated to the guest, which adds significant emotional and tangible value to the overall experience.
Our decision-making when conceiving these creative avenues is driven by several questions we ask ourselves, including: How can we bring a concept to life by using unconventional materials in unexpected ways? What will be unavoidably memorable for a guest to experience? What might other designers be afraid to do? What can inspire surprise and delight? What can result in a more authentic moment infused with soul? What does this project WANT that can’t be expressed through typical materials normally mined through a conventional interior design process.
Mixed metals and fire-kiln ceramic tiles were chosen for Bourbon Steak to reflect the elemental theme of fire in the menu. How closely do you collaborate with chefs or culinary teams in shaping a restaurant’s material palette to align with the dining concept?
AvroKO has always have the end dining concept and its use in mind while designing a restaurant and collaborate with the chef and culinary teams whenever possible and as early as possible. With Bourbon Steak we worked very closely with Michael Mina on reflecting the concept’s culinary origins into the materials in the space. Highlighting the importance of fire and the role it plays in creating the menu, the materiality tells a story of different ways fire could create a rich texture using different mixed metals and fire-kiln ceramic tiles throughout the space. The rich rust colors from the tiles and the harmonious mix of patinated metals bring back the rich and moody atmosphere that steakhouses are often associated with, balanced with a modern interpretation. We also worked with the Mina team on designing custom carts that bring cold seafood selections tableside for guest selection, adding an element of delight and interactivity to the dining experience.
AvroKO has a reputation for creating emotionally connected experiences through ‘Hospitable Thinking®.’ How do you incorporate this concept into your design philosophy for high-end spaces like these steakhouses, and what are the key elements that ensure diners feel an emotional connection when they enter these spaces?
Our aim is to always deliver the unexpected. We have a trademarked process at the core of our work called Hospitable Thinking®. It’s made up of what we’ve coined the “4 S’s”—Security, Surprise, Significance, and Synergy. These all work together to create those special, detailed moments, and we take them into account with every project.
With studios around the globe, your team works across diverse cultural contexts. How does AvroKO ensure that a project designed in, say, your London studio for a restaurant in Doha still maintains the firm’s signature while being culturally and contextually relevant to the location?
It all comes down to philosophy and systems. Our ethos and process has been refined over two decades and we have been able to translate that to all our global offices. No matter the concept or locale, the design work is born from the same wellspring of high level intent, purpose, and direction.
Given that you’ve designed restaurants all over the world and across multiple styles, do you think there are universal elements that make for a great dining space, or is each design fully dictated by its unique environment?
There are absolutely universal, overarching elements that need to be considered when making a great dining space, and these can all be manipulated to be appropriate for any concept, style or locale. Great lighting, for instance, is paramount. Both architectural and decorative lighting should make both the space and its inhabitants look and feel fabulous. Others include grounding diners in floor plans that feel safe and anchored with intentional sightlines, creating a journey through space utilizing a variety of unfolding rooms or experiences, and utilizing authentic, natural materials with texture and patina to add soul and gravity.
Credits:
Photography courtesy of ArvoKO | @avroko.
