Restaurant design has come a long way from putting out a few old lobster traps or a wagon wheel around the dining room. It is even beyond the introduction of colors to subliminally affect diner behavior. (In the 1980’s, for example, it was thought that a red color scheme in a restaurant made us eat faster so tables could be turned quicker.)
Nowadays, restaurant design is an integral part of the marketing process to attract and keep customers. An internationally recognized leader in hospitality design is based in Pawtucket. Judd Brown Designs (JBD) is responsible for the look of thousands of restaurants, private clubs and retailers from Providence to Moscow.
JBD’s most recent project is the just-opened Big Papi’s Grille in Framingham, Mass., a restaurant themed around Boston baseball star David Ortiz. It would seem like a pretty straightforward job: Take one star ballplayer, put a bunch of pictures of him in action around the dining room, have TV’s every few feet with ESPN on, and a menu of burgers with names like “The Monster.”
But as JBD designers John Bell and Joshua Shockley told me, the project was about branding. Ortiz’s people and the restaurant’s owner, Classic Restaurant Group, did not want to open a sports bar. They wanted to create an upscale casual “family grill” concept at a steakhouse known as Metro 9, which had never really caught on.
The restaurant’s image had become somewhat blurred, with on-site management attempting to inject a nightclub atmosphere which turned off upscale diners and families. Given the economy, the owners were not in a position to do a complete makeover. Enter JBD, who designed the previous concept.
The designers were intimately familiar with the physical layout of the restaurant. The steakhouse idea was still appealing to the owners. When Ortiz’s agent was shopping around the player’s interest in owning a restaurant, the wheels began turning. Ideas were brainstormed. The JBD design team floated an idea to the owners and Ortiz. Why not create excitement on a nightly basis with the possibility that Big Papi is hosting in his own restaurant?
A private room was created with Ortiz’s own table, dubbed “Table 34” after his uniform number. The menu has a sprinkling of dishes influenced by Ortiz’s native Dominican Republic, including spicy chimichurri, empanadas and ceviche. There is also a steakhouse-style section with a la carte side dish choices and seafood from mahi-mahi to ahi tuna.
According to Peter Cafaro, JBD’s director of business development, the project was a prime example of the designer’s current portfolio of projects. “We’re as busy as ever, but finding projects these days is sometimes a challenge.”
Many national restaurant chains have not only cut back on new development, some have in fact disbanded their property departments. This cost designers such as JBD as many as two to three projects annually.
To fill in the gap, the firm has had to rely on its 27-year reputation and Judd Brown’s personal relationships with entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry. Brown and his company made the decision to tailor their approach to smaller clients who, while they were impressed with the quality of work, may have assumed that JBD was out of their price range.
One international project, a diner chain in Moscow, was interested in developing a steakhouse and coffee shop. It was through a chance conversation with Brown that their interest came to light.
With the successful launch of Big Papi’s under its belt, JBD hopes to secure projects with other star athletes, to perhaps become the big leagues’ designer of choice. And by the way, on any given night, there is a reasonable chance that David Ortiz will be at Big Papi’s Grille. •
Bruce Newbury’s Dining Out radio
show can be heard Saturdays at noon
on stations throughout New England.
He can be reached by e-mail at Bruce@BruceNewbury.com.
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