TEQUILA!

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! I recently posted some images of a past project, 5th Street Cafe. After the cafe closed Patti and I were hired by the new tenant to redesign the space for a completely different concept. Escorpion Tequila Bar and Cantina is a really fun spot, featuring authentic mexican food and tequila based craft cocktails. The owner, Riccardo Ullio was great to work with because he understood what changes we needed to make to get the neighborhood back into 800 Peachtree Street. We doubled the size of the bar by making the existing shotgun bar double-sided, this also gave people sitting at the bar more to look at (the street or people watching in the dining room). We also transformed the old bakery into a lounge and the old sandwich station into a VIP Birthday booth. The design was inspired by the Franz Ferdinand music video for Take Me Out and the Robert Rodriguez film, From Dusk Till Dawn. 

The barstools came from Riccardo's personal inventory. When we got ahold of them they were white leather and read as ultra-modern. Patti and I picked out hides and leathers to create this custom look. The tequila flight boards below were made custom as well to showcase their huge selection of tequila.

One of my favorite pieces in the restaurant is this custom painting above, by Travis Pack. Below is a custom designed light fixture showcasing the Birthday Booth (it took a lot of tequila shots to make this thing happen)

photo credit

Also a big congratulations to Riccardo Ullio for becoming a 2011 GRACE finalist for Restauranteur of the Year. He's up against Richard Blais, owner of Trail Blais and Chirs Hall, Todd Mussman and Ryan Turner of Local Three. The winner will be announced on November 13th!

Happy Monday!