M WELLS DINETTE MOMA PS1
M Wells dinette moma ps1
New York City, 1,000 SF
Designed by Solid, M. Wells Dinette is a critically-acclaimed restaurant located in MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York. New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells declared that, “PS1 should be congratulated for landing a restaurant that suits the neighborhood, the museum’s audience and, trickiest of all, the questing spirit of the work in its galleries,” and The New Yorker proclaimed that, “M. Wells treats cuisine as high art.” Housed in a former public school building, MoMA PS1 is one of the oldest and largest contemporary art institutions in the United States, and when they set-out to overhaul their classroom-sized café, they wanted an eatery just as ambitious as the art on view. The design concept for the space harkens back to its days as a classroom—the long communal tables, with cubbies underneath at each place setting, are inspired by school desks, and a large green chalkboard on the wall displays the rotating daily menu. The kitchen was designed to accommodate the space and technical limitations of the historic building as well as large crowds at the museum’s weekly events, which in the summer can draw upwards of 5000 visitors. Echoing the artistic and musical performances that often take place in the adjacent courtyard, the stainless steel open kitchen puts the chefs on stage for diners to observe as they create playful culinary delicacies.
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