These days no matter where I am, a restaurant, a coffee shop, a clothing store, a friend’s house, all I see are possible design ideas and inspiration. This was no different at L’Amico, a bright, modern farmhouse of an Italian restaurant with an open kitchen and wood everywhere.
What I noticed upon entering the restaurant was that I loved everything about it. It made you feel hip and yet at home at the same time. The front wall of windows had been retracted so that the whole restaurant was open to the busy streets of Midtown Manhattan and yet it still felt cozy. I began collecting observations so that I could understand how this ambiance was created.
Open Kitchen: You can see the chefs hard at work in the background of the photo above. It was essential to me when choosing a floorplan for my own home that the kitchen be open to the family room. To me, a kitchen is a family room and they should naturally just be parts of the same room. This is how you achieve that feeling of warmth.
Shrubbery: Notice the tree on the left hand side of the photo. There weren’t tons of plants inside, just enough to make the room seem natural. Outside blended with inside with wooden walls and furniture, the appropriate amount of greenery, and natural light.
Pendant Lighting: I love the industrial feel of these oversized pendants. The combination of different style pendants as well as the little drop lights are a perfect contrast to the farmhouse style of the wood beams.
I really only snapped this picture for the chairs. Another example of classic wood with a modern twist with the metal bars.
While I’m at it, I might as well tell you about the food since it was phenomenal. We went for brunch and normally for brunch I wouldn’t get appetizers. But these were too delicious sounding to resist and they were the real stars.
What you see here is prosciutto with roasted pear, bleu cheese crostini, and some candied walnuts. The prosciutto was some of the best I have ever had and the combination of sweet pear with an extremely sharp bleu cheese was perfect. Also, honorable mention goes to the cool marble platter.
Pictured above is fresh burrata on top of caramelized red onions with truffle shaved on top. If you have never had fresh burrata, it’s like a fresh mozzarella but way, way creamier and better in every possibly way.
L’Amico is a new favorite on my list of NYC restaurants in both flavor and interior design!