First lesson in restaurant design: Nothing ever starts on time. Ted Nelson has that one down now. He and his partner, Ben Dagitz, of Design Build Office, are designing the new location of Aroma’s Café in the Barracks Road Shopping Center. It’s the first restaurant project for the one-and-a-half-year-old firm started by Nelson and Dagitz, who graduated from UVA with degrees in architecture in 2002. Back in October, Nelson and Aroma’s owner, Hassan Kaisoum, told us they expected the aroma of Kaisoum’s Moroccan and Mediterranean fare (which currently is confined to a remote spot in the Fontaine Research Park) to be wafting down Barracks Road by the first of the year, but Restaurantarama has learned to tack on at least a week or two to initial opening day predictions. Add to that the additional layers of approvals and red tape that come from a shopping center bureaucracy, and Nelson says to expect a February opening.
 Seeing it through: Ted Nelson of Design Build Office is hard at work on the new location of Aroma’s Café for a projected February opening. |
But it will be worth the wait, we think. In honor of C-VILLE’s inaugural design issue, we stopped by the construction zone to find out what goes into designing a dining spot. We discovered that, at least in the case of this project, it’s a whole lot more than deciding where to run the plumbing and gas lines. Design Build’s business takes sort of a holistic approach. Unlike your typical architecture firm, which draws up the plans and then hightails it out of there when the contractors come in and discover—oops—it can’t be done within the budget, Design Build does, well, just what you’d think: the designing and the building.
As for specifics on the new space, there’s not a whole lot to reveal yet, thanks to Design Build’s ability to be flexible. “We came up with the concept, and we’re hashing out the details as we go,” says Nelson; although, he did let Restaurantarama in on a few of the initial design challenges.
“Because Aroma’s is not full service all the time, flow is really important,” says Nelson as he shows us how the ordering line will begin from one of the restaurant’s two front doors and snake past the framed-out kitchen to the ordering window. From there, a half wall, along with strategically placed flowers and foliage, will separate the ordering space from the dining-in space and prevent those hungry orderers from gawking at and “breathing down the necks” of the diners, says Kaisoum.
To further distract those waiting on line, Kaisoum says that he and Nelson plan to give them “something for the eye to see for free.” In this case, the eye candy will be walnut tables, built-in benches, wine racks and cabinetry all custom-built and designed by Nelson and his team, as well as a modern interpretation of Moroccan décor, including plaster walls and a paint treatment to resemble the Tadelakt lime plaster used on traditional Moroccan homes.
Then there’s the distraction of Kaisoum himself, who intentionally will be visible through windows to the kitchen, navigating the tiny but efficient 400-square-foot space (less than half the size of the kitchen as his current cafeteria location) along with his team. “We’ll be doing a little dance and sautéing around each other,” says Kaisoum.
In addition to working on his kitchen choreography, Kaisoum says he’s going to be upping the presentation of the food itself, to match the quality of the new space. After all, “you eat with your eyes,” says Kaisoum.
How true. So look for plenty for your eyes to devour when Aroma’s new digs are finally revealed.
Chef shuffle
Restaurantarama has learned of a couple of new cooks in the kitchen. At Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar, line cook Danny Campos has taken over for Chef Kathy Buschet, who has moved on to Hawaii.
At the Downtown Revolutionary Soup, owner Will Richey is taking over for the departing Shaun Harvey. Richey tells us that he is gladly heading back to stir the soup at his flagship store now that his Corner location, which opened this past fall, is up and running.
