After a four year absence from Chicago’s culinary scene, chef Takashi Yagihashi’s choice for his new restaurant was not the grand venue the media might have expected of a James Beard Foundation Award winner.
However, the former artist studio had such a charming feel that it inspired me to design a very intimate 60-seat restaurant mirroring Chef Yagihashi’s unique blend of French-American cuisine with strong Asian influences. The restaurant’s most striking feature is the custom hand-painted panoramic mural of organic tree branches on silver linen which dominates the first floor dining room. The result is a combination of Asian sensitivity with contemporary Western flair.