“Restaurants are like a machine for hosting a grand party every night.” – Peter Soutowood
And who would know that better than Peter, former restaurant owner and our senior associate? Since rejoining Platt/Whitelaw Architects, Peter has expanded our community architecture work to include restaurants.
These clients have found a uniquely qualified design partner in Peter.
“Designing is one thing but being on the ownership and operations side of a restaurant gave me a completely different perspective of why things should be laid out the way they are,” he said.
Along with Principal Naveen Waney and others from our team, Peter is helping Matt Power, owner of MRKT Space, design his third location. With locations already in Encinitas and La Jolla Shores, Matt is renovating space in downtown Rancho Santa Fe for the next iteration of MRKT Space.
As if we weren’t pleased enough to add an exciting new type of community architecture to our books, Matt selected a historic building designed by famous San Diego architect Lilian Rice for his new MRKT Space location. (This seems like a good place to shamelessly plug our experience in historic renovation.)
The Rancho Santa Fe building was subdivided over the years to make way for offices, so we’ll be restoring the original space to more closely resemble how it looked 100 years ago when it started as…a market.
The beautiful ground floor space, where a café and gourmet market will go, includes adobe, wood-framed walls. Above that level, Matt has already secured permission to create a roof deck with a full restaurant and bar, with a brand-new and historically complementary, stepped-back, second-story structure.
The Rancho Santa Fe MRKT Space will help re-activate the village center by providing an all-day venue. Opening is estimated for late 2023, and the food and beverage selections will be top-shelf and Italian-inspired.
We’re excited to be working with such a visionary restaurant owner (with impeccable taste in architecture) who has plans for further expansion of his food and beverage concept.
Little Madi & More
Fans of Madison in University Heights will be happy to hear that we’re also working with this restaurant owner to design an offshoot of Madison, called Lil’ Madi, focused on brunch service. This client is also having us design a pizza restaurant.
Allow us to drop hints about also working with some other entrepreneurs who are planning to open everything from bars to burger joints to patisseries.
No matter the type of space, “There’s a gigantic flow of stuff that needs to be invisible to people who come in, but the space still has to be as efficient as possible,” said Peter, adding that he always has the client walk them through the exact operation of their restaurant’s food or beverage concept before starting design.
Whether it’s Rancho Santa Fe, midtown or another of your favorite neighborhoods, keep an eye open for Platt/Whitelaw Architects banners on the next exciting hospitality construction site.