Each year, rd+d’s Designers Dish! checks in with a handful of designers from across the country to gather insights on what’s hot, what’s impacting their work and how their thinking around restaurant design continues to evolve. The big themes right now? Meeting demand for increasingly experiential, authentic and high-functioning spaces while at the same time navigating tighter timelines, higher costs and growing economic uncertainty.
Many thanks to our 2025 participants for sharing their thoughts and strategies:
Paul Basile, Basile Studio
Jennifer Bueso, Patrick Thompson Design
Katy Curtis, 75 Degree Design Studio
Natalie Lieberman, Collect + Curate Studio
Lance Saunders, Stokes Architecture + Design
What consumer forces or marketplace shifts are having an impact on your restaurant projects today?
Basile: One that I’m taking advantage of as a both a designer and a soon-to-be restaurant owner myself — we’re opening a restaurant called Roseacre in La Jolla, Calif., this summer — is toward multiconcept venues. It enables guests to have a really different evening where it doesn’t have to be just, ‘I’m going to dinner.’ At RoseAcre, for example, we’ll have a coffee shop, a back-alley bar, and a sushi concept. It’s something we’ve also been integrating more into client projects the past several years. A second shift is toward interactive architecture, or what we call “mechatronics” — the merging of electronics and mechanical devices. It’s creating things that are interactive and at the same time useful, such as operable liquor shelves that lower down to the bartender versus them getting up on a ladder. It’s practical but also adds an element of showmanship.
Bueso: Designers and restaurant operators are pressured more than ever to focus on both creativity and authenticity. There’s such saturation, especially in the world of social media, that everyone is always looking for the next hot thing, and you need to stay fresh and relevant. You want to catch the attention to draw people in but, most importantly, you want them to keep coming back. Authenticity and freshness are always important, but in this day and age it’s critical in order to stand out.
Curtis: I keep hearing about how Millennials don’t drink and how that’s supposed to be impacting us. Maybe it’s just the types of projects I have, but I haven’t seen that making an impact. The big thing I have seen growing is so-called experiential dining. Everything has to be unique and memorable. I even had one client say that they don’t really have to have wonderful food as long as the design and atmosphere are great. That may be a stretch, but it’s true that you can’t get away with simple anymore. One more: We’re not doing as many open kitchens now, in part because of the operational and acoustical challenges they create. Instead, we’re doing more kitchens that are only partially open, or creatively camouflaged.
Saunders: One interesting twist is development of more fixed-price, tasting-menu restaurant models.
We did such a project here in Philadelphia last year and a few clients we’ve worked with in other cities are talking about doing something similar. Provenance, in Philadelphia, is maybe 26 seats total with an open kitchen, chef’s counter and two private dining spaces. There’s a lot of attention paid to aiming for a higher price point, a more catered experience as opposed to a traditional neighborhood restaurant. The chef would rather people go out once a year and spend a lot on a very special experience than go out every week for average food and an average experience. And there’s definitely demand among a certain set of consumers who see value in splurging on those types of experiences.
Lieberman: One thing that’s come up over and over again is nostalgic concepts. We recently completed Kinfolk in Memphis, for example, which is a fresh take on a country diner experience, and Cocozza, a
red-sauce, Italian American family dining experience. Both were about leaning into nostalgia, creating something comforting and familiar but freshly reimagined. We’ve also lately been doing a lot of spaces within spaces — little bars or lounges off to the side, separate from the main
bar/lounge, or maybe a special little back patio area that you’d never know is there. It lends an intimate, private club feel but also a sense of discovery, where you can go to this particular restaurant and enjoy different experiences with slightly different menus, vibes and even sometimes unique names or branding each time.
Eos & Nyx, San Jose, Calif.
“This is a contemporary Greek concept, but the design isn’t overtly Greek. The clients allowed us to flex our design muscles and do a lot of the fabrication. It’s a very unique, big space and it’s always hard to fill big spaces. People love the volume of them, but you can’t just leave them open. So, we did a lot of really cool lighting. We added a mezzanine level. We added a two-story, rotating liquor carousel system that services the bar on both levels. That was a big feat, and it turned out great.”
Design Lead: Paul Basile, Basile Studio
How are you strategizing around current economic uncertainty and cost implications?
Bueso: Pricing continues to increase, and we’re forced to be more creative.
The cost of wood, for example is way up. A client may want walnut, but can we stain maple to look like walnut to achieve the desired effect at a lower cost? And there are big cost savings you can make when it comes to millwork. People tend to think high dollar signs come with custom millwork, but that’s not necessarily the case in a world where lead times are now double what they used to be. So, we’re thinking a lot more about things like the cost of transportation and lead times and how we can use materials that historically haven’t been considered beautiful but that we can highlight or display differently. We don’t know yet where the tariff and trade impacts will hit hardest, but coming out of COVID we learned to build an arsenal of resources and alternatives for all types of situations. And we’re in Detroit, where there’s tremendous pride in local, so we always try to source locally as much as possible.
Curtis: Everything, from equipment to construction materials to even the cheap-but-still-unique $3 tile that used to be easy to find, is significantly more expensive. I’m having to lean away from some sources and look for new sources in countries that aren’t impacted by the tariffs. And I’m trying to get things in front of clients sooner so that we can make decisions and have the lead times needed to actually use those manufacturers. We’re also working to source more furnishings and lighting, for example, which we often need custom, in the U.S.
Lieberman: We learned lessons during the pandemic and have prioritized sourcing much more domestically, so we already have those sources in place. We’ve also been heavily involved in pricing exercises, having a really good finger on the pulse for what pricing is and preemptively value-engineering ourselves when cost might be an issue. We include a lot of pricing alternates in our design documents so that when we go through bidding and negotiation we already have those researched. That saves a lot of time, because as prices have been rising and budgets shrinking that negotiation phase can really drag out.
Basile: Inflation is definitely affecting budgets. We’re seeing kind of a return to the days, maybe pre-Yelp, when restaurants didn’t want to spend money. They were more about the food and service than about elaborate spaces and designers had to be very clever with how we used our materials. Our budgets are now shrinking again and we’re trying to figure out how to become even more clever. In terms of supply chain challenges, a core premise at our company is that we fabricate so much in-house. It’s crucial to me that we’re not spending a lot of money on things like fancy imported tiles. We use mostly natural materials and products that are readily available, like next-day available.
Saunders: A short answer is more related to clients and their ability to get financing than it is to tailoring the design in any specific way. But now, of course, there’s a lot of extra uncertainty around tariffs and what they’ll mean for the cost of things like steel and aluminum for equipment, and various FF&E items. Tariffs aside, a lot of building material costs have risen significantly. Plywood, for example, has gone through the roof and that trickles down into engineered wood flooring. Our strategy has long been to source locally as much as possible and we also source a lot of vintage items, both of which help to circumvent some of the big pricing and supply chain issues.
Red Ryder Lounge, Plymouth, Mich.
“We were able to bring the clients’ love for vinyl to life in this restaurant and listening lounge, where they have more than 4,000 vintage vinyl albums on display. As part of the design narrative, we created a marquee wall feature that they can use to display different song lyrics and change the lyrics out as they wish. It’s a social-media-friendly moment but not just because it makes for a great photo. More importantly, it’s a key moment that comes authentically from the clients’ passion for vinyl.”
Design Lead: Jennifer Bueso, Patrick Thompson Design
What types of research do you find most valuable in your work?
Saunders: I think a lot of people rely heavily on Pinterest and Instagram, but the downside there is that you’re really all being fed the same things, the same design trends and the same projects. I try as much as I can to not do that in favor of diving into nonalgorithmic research. Depends on the project, but I like to watch old movies and study set designers whose work admire, I go through my own design libraries at home and at the office and I use the public library.
Bueso: When we start a project, we dive deep into research. What’s the history of the area, who was the original architect, what lives has the building had? It helps us to be authentic, to work from an understanding of and sensitivity to what once was, and to unearth nuggets around which to build a design narrative. Even in cases where it doesn’t yield much of interest, we
use research to create our own narrative that can form the backbone
of a project.
Curtis: I encourage designers to take time, to travel and see things, to really pay attention. When you’re out to dinner, look around, note what the materials are, what the background is, look at the lighting, take in all of the details because that can inform our work. We can then dig in with books and online research and figure out techniques and solutions so that we can apply things in unique ways in our own work. I also always like to research comparable restaurants in a market to see what the competition is doing so we can bring in something different and better.
Lieberman: We’re very concept driven, designing not only from an imagery standpoint, but from a narrative standpoint. And that narrative is based off all the research we do to unearth existing information and/or to create our own story that will drive design decisions. It’s something we always do before we pull any imagery or finishes or draw anything. I don’t ever want a generic design approach where we’re choosing things because we think they’re attractive or fit an aesthetic. It’s got to be pulled from the place of a story.
Basile: We have maybe 100 different tools and types of equipment in the studio and a whole CNC department, so I research the hell out of new types of equipment and tools. That’s because what new tools and equipment can do is create something that doesn’t already exist — a new form or shape of a material that we couldn’t do previously. It helps keep us in the forefront and ahead of the curve.
Enswell, Philadelphia
“This old, Edwardian building had a lot of great characteristics — original plaster ceilings and trim, fluted columns, mosaic floor. We were able to restore those and squeeze a kitchen into an almost-too-small space and make the whole space feel comfortable and inviting. The trick in such spaces is to not get too reverential with what’s there or what it might have looked like in its day but to have a little fun layering in adjacent styles. Here, we embraced Art Deco, which would come right after Edwardian, as a way to introduce a new design language and create a more contemporary look and feel.”
Design Lead: Lance Saunders, Stokes Architecture + Design
Are social media moments still a big deal?
Curtis: Yes, but it’s evolving. Nobody’s really looking at just a post anymore, they’re looking at a video. So, thinking around social media has to be about more than just that one moment. Whatever guests are shooting in video has to reflect the story that you’re trying to get across in the broader environment.
Bueso: We might want to ignore it, but social media really has become where people go both to rate and check out restaurants. We have to take it into consideration, but it can’t be the driving force or it becomes contrived. Instead, we stay sharply focused on creating timeless spaces based on a lot of research, which helps us create and naturally weave in those special moments that fit a strong narrative and aren’t just there for the sake of social media.
Saunders: I understand the importance of social media from a marketing perspective, but there’s a slippery slope of relying on it to direct or inspire design. Peoples’ algorithms aligning and all of us seeing the same projects on our timelines and then being “inspired” by them doesn’t necessarily lead to the best design outcomes. So, when someone asks me for that social-media moment I understand what they’re saying, but in my head I may roll my eyes a bit for that reason.
Lieberman: There was definitely a moment when it seemed everyone had the feature wall with a neon sign, and that gets really contrived. We take a more holistic approach focused on making the whole space beautiful, with moments of interest wherever you are in it. Clients do still ask about Instagram moments, but the key is for them to understand the value of good design not just from a social-media standpoint but from a business standpoint. A well-designed space helps them be more successful.
Basile: A lot of stuff on social media becomes contrived, overexposed and dated. It’s one of the reasons why we developed our interactive architecture lab. There was a sense of a need for people to take the design to the next level. On our own Instagram, we started noticing that our imagery would get a certain amount of hits, but when we posted videos showing the interactive architecture in action, we got many, many more. Clients see that, too. We go to Cowboy Star, which is just down the street from us, and it’s fun to watch when someone pushes the button, and the liquor shelves start coming down. Everyone at the bar gets out their phones and starts taking videos. Those then get shared and drive traffic to the restaurant.
Jolie, New Orleans
“Jolie is a good example of narrative-driven, experiential dining design. It’s a small-plates ‘loungerie’ — French bistro meets luxe cocktail bar meets whimsical lounge. For the design, we tried to blur the lines between traditional restaurant setting and residential salon, with a lot of small tables, soft seating, bold prints, textures, velvets, drapery, pop art, vintage accessories and mood lighting combined to create a space that feels like a young traveler’s worldly abode.”
Design Lead: Katy Curtis, 75 Degree Design Studio
What’s going on with restaurant project timelines?
Lieberman: The bidding and negotiation phase is definitely now longer than it used to be. We try to streamline it with more pricing alternatives upfront. But ideally, clients would come in with some understanding of what it takes to build out a restaurant, both in terms of timing and pricing. Everything’s more expensive and takes longer than pre-COVID. Bringing us in
early also helps, so that we can work with the architect and the MEP engineers and get permit drawings done as quickly as possible.
Saunders: Lead times for things like kitchen equipment and electric panels have been ridiculous since the pandemic. That trickles into some FF&E categories, as well. Construction is also taking longer now. Getting permits approved takes longer, even though most of that is now done electronically. So that’s one end of the spectrum, and it means projects, especially larger, high-end ones, are taking much longer. At the other end of the spectrum, there are also a lot more of smaller, upstart clients in this economy who come to us and don’t even want to go for permits. They have just enough capital for a quick cosmetic redesign and need to get open quickly. Either way, it’s helpful if we can have upfront, honest conversations about budget. That saves us having to go back and forth mid-project, pausing everything while we value engineer.
Basile: Timelines since COVID, primarily for permitting, have slowed down by two to three times. It’s all more convoluted and repetitive. There are more comments than normal and it’s often tough to get anywhere because it seems nobody wants to take accountability. If you try to do something outside the box, it just keeps getting pushed back to you. And if you have a construction change, the whole world falls apart. The system is broken and needs reprioritizing. After COVID, nobody came back to the office and we’re trying to do everything in video calls. We really need to be sitting in front of a set of plans, working through the issues and having group discussions.
Curtis: Landlords seem to now be reducing the amount of time given to tenants before beginning to charge rent. Permitting, however, is still taking longer and clients don’t want to be paying rent while stuck waiting on construction. It means we’re having to design very quickly and source while we design so as soon as the permit comes in, we’re ready to go. I always advise newer clients, who maybe haven’t done a restaurant before, to go back to the landlord and make the case for more time based on what we know to expect from the city. A lot of times, operators aren’t aware of those permitting timeframes and negotiating for more time can pay off.
Bueso: Permitting has gotten better, but it’s still a lot longer than it used to be. We always have to use longer lead times as the assumption and to set the expectation. It’s a reality that has led to us having, in many cases, to change the order in which the design process happens. Clients need to start generating revenue as quickly as possible. They want to get to permitting quickly, so we have to be extra-flexible and figure out how we can let them start demo or construction while we’re still designing.
Kinfolk, Memphis, Tenn.
“This client had done successful pop-ups, but this was their first brick and mortar. They didn’t have a huge budget, and the footprint was very tight, which actually worked well for what is a nostalgic, country diner concept. We leaned into the diner aesthetic, using finishes, furniture and lighting — including graphic mosaic and terrazzo tile, laminate booths and tables, walnut paneled walls and classic globe pendant lights — to create an ambiance reminiscent of a mid-century modern diner. And we maximized the floorplan to squeeze in both booth seating and a small bar.”
Design Lead: Natalie Lieberman, Collect + Curate Studio
What comes first, branding or design?
Bueso: There’s no right answer, but what’s important is that they synch up sooner rather than later because they’re so informative of each other. Branding can bring things to the table that we can weave in, such as a mosaic on the floor, for example, or design might set a tone that influences branding’s color palette. Having them happen in tandem is always preferable.
Curtis: It depends on the client and if they have a strong vision for their brand. When they do, that’s extremely helpful and makes the design process that much easier. But if they don’t, design can ultimately help drive the branding later in the process, and that’s ok, too.
Basile: Either way, it’s always about storytelling and how to make a restaurant stand out. That said, it can speed things up when a client comes in with a pretty clear branding program because a lot of times at the beginning of a project, you’re muddling through trying to figure out a spark to grab onto. When they already have their vision sorted out a bit and some branding developed, we can say, “Ok, cool. We know where you’re going,” and it can unfold from there.
Saunders: Branding should be integrated throughout the design process. We’re working on a project now where we’ve been directly collaborating with the branding team since the start. It helps all sides
(us, branding, client, contractor) to prioritize certain elements or strategies related to design and to help push new ideas and break from trends in the market. This project started with a strong, evocative name selected before we were even signed up as designers. It was only a name, but it’s great to have that focus from the beginning. It helps move the design in a specific direction, and to refocus the design as things inevitably get convoluted.
Lieberman: If we have clients that are emerging brands doing their first restaurant, we often take the lead and give the branding team a package. Or maybe we’re simultaneously going back and forth, where we start pulling a color palette and we send that to them, and they tweak their design so everything’s working together. But even with clients who have experience and are well-established, we try to help inform branding as we develop design so that we’re not working in vacuums.
