Wine and dine

Wine and dine
Ella Dining Room & Bar offers guests rustic luxury

By Kelly Shaul, Editorial Intern
August 01, 2008

Mathijs Wessing

Even before the Selzim Group envisioned Ella Dining Room & Bar, it sat as the cornerstone of Sacramento, Calif.'s high-end revitalization plan. Poised to become "Sacramento's living room," Ella was part of the plan to draw suburbanites back into the capital's downtown area. The $4 million design embodies a theme of contrast, wedding opposites such as old and new, smooth and rough—even modest and extravagant.

The Selzim Group, which also owns Selland's Market-Café and The Kitchen Restaurant, selected Napa, Calif.-based UXUS Design to help personify its idea of "rustic luxury"—a concept meant to "offer guests an experience that epitomizes the pleasures of dining at a dear friend's home"—in Ella's brand and experience.

George Gottl, creative director of UXUS and designer of Ella Dining Room & Bar, describes rustic luxury as "essential purity and authenticity," adding that his client was looking for "world-class, warm hospitality." Ella's tunnel-like entryway opens to reveal Belgian blue stone elegantly encasing an oyster bar hand-chiseled from Carrara marble. Overlaying the bar, 520 pairs of salvaged Hungarian shutters in various tonal hues blanket the walls and ceiling, creating a literal "inside-out" effect.

A floor-to-ceiling smoked glass case—which holds Ella's exclusive wine bottle collection—partitions the bar and a small dining area. Linen-curtained columns ensconce HID floodlights in the main dining room, a unique design concept that offers ecologically sound lighting while exuding an ambient warm glow.

To reflect the relaxed intimacy of dining in the home of a close friend, two elm communal tables custom-made in Italy serve as host's tables. According to French tradition, guests at these tables d'hôte watch and dine as the chef personally prepares their orders. "It's the highest honor to be invited into the kitchen [in France]," Gottl says, explaining why Ella's open kitchen flows seamlessly into the dining area.

Moreover, the design's elegant color palette—subtle shades of bone white, natural linen, stone gray and taupe, all highlighted with gold—stems from the culinary influences on the menu, resulting in an abstract portrayal of the Western Mediterranean.

WEB EXTRA! One-on-one with the designer: George Gottl, creative director, UXUS, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Q: Where do you see the retail/hospitality design industry five years from now?
A: With Internet and virtual experiences becoming more integrated into daily lives. REAL experiences, such as shopping, hotels and restaurants, will become more important than ever for connecting people together. Many companies are shifting their budgets away from advertising and into shop, restaurant and hotel environments, creating a 360-brand world for their customers to visit and experience, and building emotional connections to their brands.

Q: What are your first steps in conceptualizing a new project design?
A: We work as a team at UXUS. Oliver Michell, our co-creative director, and I usually start by brainstorming together and set the initial idea. After that, it is passed off to one of our design teams to further expand and develop. We have periodical gut checks to make sure that the project is maintaining the initial vision, and to make sure it is executed all the way through to completion. It's all very collaborative.

Q: Because of your profession, do you have trouble differentiating yourself as a customer or designer when in a restaurant or store?
A: Is there a difference? Being a designer means being a designer. Most designers I know can never turn that aspect of themselves off--we are always looking, observing and thinking.

Q: What three words would you use to describe your the UXUS design philosophy?
A: Opposites brought together. (Intelligent & Emotional, Human & Evocative, Poetic & Rational)

Q: Who are your role models/mentors in the design field?
A: We look to art and artists to drive our inspiration and see where design will go in the future. Art, design and architecture are coming closer together.

Q: What is your favorite design project of all the ones you've worked on?
A: All of our projects are special, each has had its own individual challenges and breakthroughs.

Q: What is the strangest thing that has ever inspired you?
A: Taxidermy animals; old scientific equipment.

Q: What was most challenging about developing a restaurant meant to draw suburbanites back into a downtown area?
A: Creating an exciting new atmosphere to draw people in, but one that was
comfortable enough to have people coming back again and again. Timeless, yet new. A tricky balance.