Local practice Formant Studio created custom furniture and fixtures while designing Mexico City restaurant Nota Tavern, taking references from classic Chicago taverns in the fit-out of a former residence.

Located in the city’s Escandón I neighbourhood, Nota Tavern is a two-storey Italian-American restaurant.

It sits on a site that once held a hacienda-style residence that was converted into an apartment building, with the owner preserving half of the original house. The restaurant sits in this portion.

Formant Studio was tasked with translating the design of classic Chicago taverns into a contemporary mode.

“The main request was to create a faithful interpretation of the neighbourhood taverns of Chicago – the kind of places built less around spectacle and more around familiarity,” Formant Studio co-founder Alejandro Valencia told Dezeen.

“The design translates the character of a classic tavern into a contemporary architectural language.”

Valencia also said the studio took other cues from Chicago and integrated the clean minimalism of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the warmer modernism of Frank Lloyd Wright, both architects known for their work in the US city.

Also in the tradition of the 20th-century modern architects, Formant Studio designed most of the furniture, from the black-stained oak tables to the steel bar stools and sleek metal sconces.

The majority of the dining room was clad in Mexican rosewood panels, which also form the custom banquettes upholstered in black Kvadrat textiles.

Formant Studio said that the previous space defined how it organised the restaurant.

The current space still has ornate stone pillars that once framed an entrance portico. The team removed the paint from the pillars, turning them into a centrepiece of the main dining space.

An entrance vestibule holds a host stand and a door leads to a metal spiral staircase painted in a rich brown. This staircase leads to a private dining room upstairs.

Past the host stand, the main dining room opens up. Visitors walk into a front area with a large banquette and a seating bar that looks out of an operable window onto the street.

“The shape of the existing space largely determined the furniture layout,” said Valencia.

“We used the longer walls to accommodate the built-in booths, establishing a clear spatial rhythm while keeping the central area flexible and allowing the dining room to adapt to different group sizes and configurations.”

Past the columns, the room has an array of tables arranged under the double-height ceiling. The rafters of the former space were painted white and a mezzanine from the private dining space juts out over a row of banquette seating. This mezzanine has a high boundary that provides privacy from below.

At the back of the space is the bar, with a mirror backsplash and rosewood millwork above.

A sound system by Paxwave was installed in the space.

The tablescapes were styled with sheer white cloths, which contrast with the stained-black chairs and the polished grey terrazzo flooring.

The kitchen space sits under the private dining room and is hidden from the main space. More mirrors line the wall that divides the kitchen, while the windows opposite have metal grating.

Art and antiques were curated by Galería Córdoba.

Formant Studio also designed its own studio in Mexico City, which it shares with photographer Fabián Martinez.

Dezeen included Formant Studio in a list of notable Mexico designers earlier this year.

The photography is by Fabián Martinez.

The post Formant Studio reinterprets the classic tavern at contemporary Mexico City restaurant appeared first on Dezeen.