In the new era of fusion cooking and globe-trotting chefs, what makes or breaks a restaurant is not necessarily the food. It's the design.
After all, it's the architect's decision on things like decor, lighting effects, and where to place the kitchen that can mean the difference between an enjoyable dining experience or not.
And David Rockwell, founder and CEO of Rockwell Group, is the restaurant architect. Not only is he the man behind 19 of Nobu's restaurants worldwide, but some of his past major projects have included The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas Hotel, the W Hotel in Union Square, and the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
His Rockwell Group was awarded the Presidential Design Award for the restoration and renovation of Grand Central Terminal in 2001, two Emmy awards for "Outstanding Art Direction For Variety, Music Or Nonfiction Programming" for the 81st and 82nd Academy Awards set designs, as well as the 2009 Pratt Legends Award from the Pratt Institute School of Art & Design, just to name a few.
In short, Rockwell is one of the top architects around right now, period.
"You have to think of a restaurant as a series of impressions," Rockwell explained to Business Insider at a recent press event in The Standard hotel in Manhattan's trendy Meatpacking District. "But what makes my job so great is there's no one answer that's right for every restaurant."
But one theme does follow Rockwell in all of his designs: the relationship and overlap between theater and architecture. "It's about entrances," Rockwell explains. "When you come in [to a restaurant], the first impression is critical."
Rockwell has long been in love with the theater. His mother was a vaudeville dancer and choreographer, and Rockwell himself has produced set designs for "Hairspray,""Catch Me If You Can,""Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," and many others.
So it stands to reason his influence and love for entrances, exits, first impressions, and drama are a large part of his design. But his rational architect side is also omnipresent. "Can you read the menus? Is the chair a 45-minute chair or is it a two and half hour chair? Does that match the rhythm the chef has in mind?" Rockwell is not only the architect of your restaurant experience, but the choreographer, setting the pace for the entire meal from the greeting to the bill.
And what's next for David Rockwell? "We're doing a hotel for Nobu that's in Las Vegas. Hopefully it's going to take what Nobu's most known for, which when it opened 19 years ago was that it was the first 3-star restaurant with no table cloths. I think it signaled the kind of luxury that doesn't involve having to eat for three hours. So I think [the hotel is] going to combine eastern rigor with western comfort and luxury."
The design is being built within Caesars Palace with a Nobu restaurant next door, and features Japanese touches such as cherry blossom designs, origami-inspired fixtures, and Japanese Zen gardens.
So the next time you're in a restaurant, take a good look around you — where you're sitting, what you're sitting on, if you can see the menu, and how far away you are from the table next to you — and remember it was all decided by the extraordinary vision of the restaurant architect.
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