Inside the Fascinating Evolution of Italian Restaurant Design
Photo: Christian Harder
The phrase “Italian restaurant design” evokes many iconic visuals: cozy booths, gallery walls, wood bars, and red checker tablecloths. But in recent years, these cornerstones have been slowly replaced with something else altogether: vibrant prints, colorful accents, and bold lighting. “Maximalism is having a moment and, frankly, I think the Italians do it best!” says Hannah Collins, founder and principal designer of ROY Design, the firm behind Corzetti, an Italian restaurant in San Francisco.
However, this wasn’t an overnight phenomenon. In fact, in the early 2000s, Italian restaurants embraced a clean, modern aesthetic—almost the exact opposite of what is now in vogue. Nonetheless, it paved the way for this new iteration. “We lived with midcentury modern for so long, it is only natural for people to want to see a change that feels exciting and counter to the last big trend movement,” Collins adds.
A large room to stretch out in at Tosca Cafe, near the corner of Broadway and Columbus in San Francisco, Calif., on November 13, 2009. The cafe will soon celebrate it's 90th birthday in business.
Though these changes do coincide with broader design trends over the years, the Italian American restaurant debuted with such a distinct aesthetic, that its evolution stands out.
“[Italian dining has] always been about perception and fantasy,” says Ian McAllen, the author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American. Originally, the design and cuisine of the eateries often reflected immigrant nostalgia for a fantastical, simplified homeland. However, the past decades have seen wanderlust for Italy grow, and the maximalist design could speak to this desire. “For those who maybe can’t travel to Sicily or Capri, the new-red sauce restaurant offers a joyful, over-the-top escape,” McAllen adds.
Below, AD looks back at the iconic eateries’ origins and contemporary transformation.
In 1886, what is largely considered the oldest Italian American restaurant, Fior D’Italia, opened in San Francisco. The venue emerged at a time when people from around the world were flocking to the state during the Gold Rush and the founder, Angelo Del Monte, had the idea to open a restaurant for the fortune seekers.
Griffin, Georgia, Angelo's Greek Italian Food restaurant dining room with customers
As more Italian American restaurants emerged in later years, a familiar motif appeared time and again: a distinct, though not necessarily accurate, mural of the Italian countryside. At the time, it was one of the very few decorative elements in an otherwise low-key setting. In San Francisco, for example, the mural at Original Coppa’s dates back to 1904 and features an expansive fresco reportedly painted by a group of the restaurant’s clients.
Empty dining tables inside Little Joe's Italian Restaurant.
“I think the kinds of murals in Italian restaurants represent ‘Italianness’ distilled to this really easily digestible, magical, nostalgia thing—which is how this landscape has been used since the 17th century at least,” art critic Ben Davis told Bon Appetit in 2019. “This art fits very well with the American version of Italian food.”
In addition to the mural, other motifs emerged that would come to define the quintessential Italian restaurant in later years: Red-and-white checker tablecloths, family photos, welcoming booths, and sturdy wood chairs. The iconic Tosca Cafe, which opened in San Francisco in 1919, combines many of these classics, such as an enormous mural, lacquered booths, and black-and-white floor tiles. The restaurant’s decor, complete with dim mood lighting, has remained nearly untouched since it first opened.
The interior dining room remains empty while the kitchen prepares meals at Tosca Cafe where dinner service has resumed outside in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, November 18, 2020
In the ’80s, Italian restaurants slowly moved away from the homespun aesthetic they’d previously been associated with and embraced a bigger-is-better, maximalist attitude that was popular in a number of different cuisines and dining scenes. After all, they didn’t call it the decade of decadence for nothing. Spiaggia in Chicago, for example, had grand green marble columns and intricate lighting fixtures (the restaurant closed in 2021). Later in the ’90s, NYC sensation Carmine’s dazzled—and still does to this day—with large candle chandeliers and mirrored columns.
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Italian restaurants evolved again in the new millennium. Take the San Francisco institution Flour + Water, which opened in 2009. With clean lines, pristine Italian marble, reserved sandy hues, and modern lighting fixtures, the restaurant epitomizes a new direction for Italian establishments.
For Flour + Water, the design team aimed to reflect the offerings of this specific restaurant, rather than loose connotations to the European nation. “We strove to connect the architecture to the personality of the food and the story of the restaurant,” says Gavin Knowles, formerly principal at Lundberg Design, who designed the restaurant. “We chose to use a simple palette of classic materials in ways that express the hands of their makers and age over time as an ode to the craftsmanship that Flour + Water puts into each dish.”
Other restaurants of the era that embraced a similar reserved chic look include I Sodi in NYC, which opened in 2008 and features a minimal cream and brown color palette with little additional decor. Via Carota, which opened in 2014, proved the staying power of the aesthetic and offers a humble take on the Italian countryside, featuring exposed brick, natural wood floors, industrial lighting, a simple white counter, and unfussy wood furniture.
The dining room of I Sodi, a restaurant in the West Village
Recent years have seen Italian restaurants transform into vibrant, maximalist wonderlands (some may recognize a similar exuberant spirit on the second season of the White Lotus). Bad Roman, which opened in 2023 near Columbus Circle in Manhattan, is a prime example of the maximalist direction Italian eateries are increasingly embracing. The restaurant has blown glass light fixtures, trompe l’oeil mosaics, and a rather large boar sculpture presiding over the dining room’s hum and buzz.
“Broadly speaking, Italian restaurant design has long focused on a limited range of Italy’s vast visual culture for its inspiration, centered around a rustic Tuscan aesthetic,” reflects Rus Mehta, partner at GRT Architects, the firm behind the restaurant. Now, he says, “our design, like the cuisine, does not aim to transport guests to any literal version of Italy but instead works like a capriccio painting: intentionally fantastic, juxtaposing styles, fragments, and motifs to create something new.”
In addition to becoming bolder overall, Italian restaurants across the country are changing thanks to the emergence of more localized, regional cuisines. A good example is the texturally rich and festive Corzetti in San Francisco, the latest project by ROY Design. Inspired by the flavors of the Ligurian coast and the vacation culture of Lake Como, Corzetti goes big with lemon wallpaper, pops of bright Ferrari-red accents, and wood installations inspired by the lake’s fishermen boats. “Ornate architectural detailing, bright and bold use of color, fresh pattern play, and layered art and styling make the spaces feel lively and exciting,” Collins notes.
The Italian restaurant’s recent tendency to take bigger design risks is also evident in openings like Marisi in La Jolla, California. While Bad Roman pulls from a collection of Italian inspirations, Marisi takes its maximalism in a different direction. Instead of opting for the broad, designers at Bells + Whistles instead chose to lean to a specific region—in this case, the Amalfi Coast. (Encinitas Design Group handled the architecture.)
The restaurant blends traditional elements like framed vintage family photos with newer, more daring ones, like iridescent tiles, mixed-media prints, a striking green-upholstered bar, and irregularly shaped sconces. The Lemon Room, featuring Schumacher citrus garden wallpaper, takes the dazzling quirkiness to the max.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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