Located in Toronto's business district, Abrielle specializes in Mediterranean cuisine from the west coast and integrates it with the background of a sprawling metropolitan business district, making it an oasis for gourmets to share, communicate and enjoy delicious food. The restaurant design focuses on relaxation and luxury, exuding timeless charm while being full of vigor and vitality. "Supreme" specially interviewed Matt Davis, one of the founders of Abrielle's design team DesignAgency, to explore the details and ingenuity in the works from the perspective of interior design.
Get inspiration by anthropomorphizing the restaurant
Davis shared with us that the overall design inspiration of the restaurant came from the team's imagination of a specific image of Abrielle: she is beautiful, elegant, well-educated, and full of curiosity and passion for food, art and design. The team aims to showcase the feminine spirit through such a design scheme, and use a combination of colors, patterns and textures to create an atmosphere that is both sophisticated and playful. During the design process, emphasis was also placed on narrative. When selecting elements such as artwork, lighting and furniture, the team tried to create an effect that the objects looked like they had been collected over a long period of time, obtained by Abrielle during her travels, heirlooms, or crafted by Abrielle in her spare time. Even the wallpaper in the bathroom may be a sketch she drew herself.
Abrielle is known for its Mediterranean cuisine, so the restaurant and bar draw on the bright colors and light style of the Mediterranean coast. The classic seaside aesthetic has injected endless design inspiration into Abrielle, just like strolling on the sun-drenched beach. The repeated use of scallop shapes, neutral tones such as ocean blue, seafoam green, shell pink and sand, as well as murals hand-painted by Vancouver artist Tammy Flynn Seybold, make guests feel as if they are in the blue sky, blue sea and golden sand of the Mediterranean coast. The overall design is like a vivid ocean painting, adding a pleasant sensory enjoyment to the dining experience.
Matt Davis, co-founder of DesignAgency
Design thinking tailored to local conditions
The restaurant is located in a bustling commercial district. When asked whether any special design was made for this purpose, Matt pointed out that the team hopes to immerse guests in a vibrant and warm environment while inspiring guests to resonate with the city. The design plan intentionally places Abrielle's charming bar at the corner window, using the street view as a vivid background to create interaction between the city and the restaurant. To give Abrielle a more urban feel, the design team selected elegant finishes such as polished marble, modern patterns, and streamlined furniture to create the atmosphere. The team also used proportional design and a large chandelier to create a modern effect, making the entire space design bold and stunning. The team successfully balanced form and function when designing the glass atrium through which guests enter from the street. Given Toronto’s extreme seasonality, a glass forecourt not only buffers against wind gusts and reduces temperatures, but also creates a welcoming atmosphere. In addition, the deep grape-colored paint in the vestibule also adds some interest to the entire space.
Abrielle is located in the historic Westinghouse building. Taking into account municipal requirements and the historical background of the building, the exterior retains the historical characteristics of the building, but this also results in the interior space of the restaurant being cut into a maze. Therefore, to create a new image, the design team redesigned the layout and rethought how the restaurant interior would connect with the architecture of the building. The new design concept positions the restaurant as a natural extension of the Sutton Place Hotel lobby, creating a connection with an open layout that allows people to move freely between the restaurant, the city and the hotel. Although retaining the building’s exterior posed additional challenges, the design team chose to retain the previous owner’s kitchen, which was originally designed for an unopened Asian restaurant. The team strategically transformed it and, in the spirit of Abrielle’s open layout, opened the kitchen to the dining area, allowing guests to enjoy an alluring view behind the scenes.
Abrielle's design combines a rich combination of materials, custom lighting systems adapted to local conditions, innovative wood-panel painted ceilings, and eclectic seating arrangements to create an experience of changing seasons for the entire restaurant, allowing diners to taste fine wine and food, enjoy intoxicating music, and feel the vivid stories behind each dish in the infinite interweaving of reality and dreams.
