Remember when every ‘cool’ restaurant focused on a vintage aesthetic? Between chandeliers and counters found in the most sought-after antique markets, lived-in-looking wooden benches, velvet boudoir pillows, and candles with an old-fashioned vibe, ‘dated’ interior design has undoubtedly dominated the cover restaurant scene. A way to make the customer feel welcomed but also to show sensory sensitivity far beyond the purely gustatory. Also because, it has long been known, the success of a place also comes from the aesthetic impact it has on the public, which is considered an excellent communication channel. Yet, now the trend would seem to be veering toward something else.
Could it be due to the success of the series American Love Story, about the love story between Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr.? The atmospheres of 1990s New York and the strict but sophisticated minimalism of the Calvin Klein offices of the time won over viewers and social media users. But not only that. It will be at least two seasons that office-core, or the trend inspired by corporate settings between austerity and luxurious essentiality have dominated our feeds, and from fashion to dining the step is short. Now, restaurants and bars would like to resemble not old-fashioned cafes but chic offices. A trend that is taking hold in New York City, the center of the world and the obligatory showcase for every trend that makes a difference, and we have no doubt that it can quickly expand everywhere else in the rest of the world.
Case in point? At Bridges restaurant, nestled in the heart of Chinatown, the dĂ©cor speaks a precise language: chrome wall sconces, Austrian school chairs, corrugated glass bricks. It’s a crisp, controlled, almost detached aesthetic, with that deliberately anonymous air reminiscent of an office. Or rather, its idealized version. Clean lines and visual rigor mark a sharp change from years past, when New York restaurants oscillated between rustic barn-like suggestions and decadent boudoir atmospheres.
Today Bridges is not an exception, but part of a larger movement: what we might call high office aesthetic. At Naro, a contemporary Korean restaurant opening in 2022 inside Rockefeller Center, off-white panels and minimal seating seem to dialogue directly with lobbies and meeting rooms. In Brooklyn, Eflux / Laika instead interprets the American office in a design key: stackable plywood chairs by Jasper Morrison and neat rows of identical tables. The result? An aesthetic that transforms the everyday into style, dissolving the boundary between work and leisure.
[đź“·Instagram:bridges.nyc]
