Thursday, January 10, 2008

Bourgeois Bohemian = Bobo

One of the newest hot spots in New York right now is a little gem of a restaurant called Bobo. I've been hearing about it everywhere and even the February 2008 issue of Domino has given them a shout out. (Don't worry, my post won't ruin it for you. They use different photos.) It's comfortable and homey restaurants and that was the point. Owner Carlos Suarez intended the Pan-European cuisine to be served in an intimate setting that conjures an old-world dinner party in what he calls “a fantasy apartment in Paris or Rome.”

When Suarez dreamed up Bobo, he wanted to avoid the “large, impersonal restaurants” he says were cropping up in the meatpacking district. So he rented a U-Haul and drove it upstate every weekend for months. “We’d come back with truckloads of goodies,” he says, and among them were six yellow French country chairs that he purchased at a Saugerties antique store for $50 to $75 each.

The restaurant’s designer was his cousin Dolores Suarez who along with her friend Caroline Grant founded the design firm Dekar in 2000 and also decorated the Zagats’ apartment. "They upholstered the chairs with a floral-print, stain-resistant material and painted them black. Now they’re tucked under a copper chef’s table purchased from Odegard, under a spider chandelier possibly salvaged from a bank. Not all of Bobo’s chairs came cheap though, when he ran out of money to buy more, Suarez brought in some from his apartment!"

Sadly, I've hear rumors that the food might not live up to the decor's "promises of a magnificent dinner." So perhaps one should go in with low food expectations and just check out the fabulous design details that will definitely leave you inspired. By the way, don't forget to take a trip to the loo to check out the Cowtan & Tout Calliope wallpaper!

No comments:

Post a Comment