Cleveland duo floats 'Bay Area' concept in Midwest
By Lori Doss
May 27, 2002
In a bid to give the hungry diners of Cleveland a taste of the brick-oven pizzas, hearty soups and sourdough sandwiches
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Designers played off the materials used in the Golden Gate Bridge by using an abstract pattern of metal pieces on the pickup counter.
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that hail from the San Francisco Bay area, longtime restaurateurs Matt Harper and Eddie Cerino brought San Francisco Oven to the Ohio city.
Starting with only a well-researched menu and their drive for success, the duo called on Bath, Ohio-based Louis & Partners Design Group to help make their fast-casual vision a reality.
"They wanted to capture the essence of San Francisco's food experience and package it in a restaurant that they could put just about anywhere," said Lou Nonno, principle of Louis & Partners Design Group.
Using as a reference a menu featuring such dishes as the "Fisherman's Wharf Tuna Salad" and "Alcatraz Roast Beef," designers relied on the signature elements that personify the Bay Area to develop the restaurant. In an effort to stay true to the city's style, Louis & Partners project director Chris Nonno sent a photographer out to California to take photographs of both the city's famous landmarks and its back streets.
"We wanted people to walk into the space and immediately feel San Francisco — everything from the Coit Tower to the Golden Gate Bridge to the trolley car," he said.
As a result, three 8-foot-tall murals — depicting a San Francisco cable car, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Painted Ladies — decorate the San Francisco Oven's walls. In addition, well-positioned mirrors reflect the murals so that they are visible throughout the restaurant's narrow space.
In addition, designers strategically positioned smaller photographs of San Francisco throughout the area. Custom-made tables in the seating area also highlight the city by displaying trivia questions about San Francisco facts.
While the restaurant's artwork and tables make obvious references to San Francisco, Louis & Partners employed other more subtle design techniques throughout the space to emphasize the Bay Area as well.
Using the Golden Gate Bridge as a guide, Louis & Partners' Chris Nonno said they used the bridge's signature international orange hue as the main color in the restaurant.
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While the San Francisco Oven's cuisine gives customers a taste of the Bay area, large murals of the city's landmarks give the space a San Francisco atmosphere.
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To attract customers passing by, the inline store's doors and window awnings also were do
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ne in orange. Serving as both a Bay Area accent and an inexpensive wall covering, cleanable orange paint was used on the restaurant's walls.
To further play off the bridge, designers used various size metal laminates to create a unique, abstract art pattern along the counter.
"We wanted an abstract version of the bridge. We thought we could have a little fun at the serving counter," Chris Nonno said.
In another subtle San Francisco touch, creatively placed lighting that runs the length of the store was designed to be reminiscent of the lighting in the city's famous cable cars, Chris Nanno said.
Meanwhile, on the operations side, Chris Nonno said the designers recognized the importance of traffic flow in a fast-casual restaurant and consequently paid special attention to the ordering system at San Francisco Oven when designing the front-of-the-house setup.
For one thing, customers, after placing their orders, can pick up their beverages and stand or sit while waiting for their food to be prepared. In addition, descriptive signage was developed to help move traffic along. Designers also made other subtle material changes. Although the ordering area is tiled, the restaurant's dining room was given wooden floors in order to break up the space and give the seating area a warmer atmosphere. In addition, by using a combination of wood paneling and the abstract mural on the counters, designers helped keep the customer flow moving.
To highlight the restaurant's food and beverage offerings and help customers navigate their way through the restaurant, designers installed decorative menu boards on the walls behind the counters. Curved wooden shelves behind the registers showcase the restaurant's California wine and beer offerings, and a glass-paneled refrigerator displays the varied dessert and bread items.
With the majority of its seating toward the back of the restaurant, thus facilitating a smooth operational flow, restaurateur Harper said he and Cerino felt it was important to give people varied seating options. Customers can push tables together to accommodate large groups or sit in intimate booths or at the counter for a bird's-eye view of the brick oven, whose pizzas account for 50 percent of the restaurant's food sales.
A 24-seat front dining area with high banquettes and smaller tables was designed to give a place to sit to those customers interested in a quick snack or beverage or to those waiting for a carryout order. The area also serves as an overflow seating space during the restaurant's busy lunch hours.
"We were really sensitive to creating environments that were good for the lunch person who's coming in and has to leave in an hour to the dinner people with families.
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To showcase San Francisco Oven's California wine offerings, designers installed open, display shelves directly behind the cash registers where customers place their orders.
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There are a lot of different audiences, and we wanted to make sure we accommodated them," said Barbara Churchill, marketing director of Louis & Partners.
While Harper and Cerino are longtime Ohio residents, their goal was to develop a fast-casual restaurant prototype with legs to stand in any area of the country. As a result, it was important for them to keep design costs down. In keeping with that goal, Louis & Partners vetoed the original choice for several hanging light fixtures, which served more as a design element than a light provider. According to Chris Nonno, the switch was rationalized by noting that the new fixtures resemble those found in Alcatraz, thus tying into the restaurant's San Francisco theme. Using paint instead of wallpaper also helped reduce costs.
Despite competitors such as Panera Bread, Baja Fresh and Chipotle, Harper s
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aid the San Francisco Oven concept is a great fit for national expansion. The pair currently has a letter of intent for a second location and is scouting real estate for a third.
"San Francisco is a positive image in everyone's mind, " Harper said. "We don't pretend that you're going to think you're in San Francisco when you're in here, but through the food, we give people a taste of San Francisco."
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