
Italian architect Romolo Stanco designed the interior of Grill X, a restaurant concept in Casale Monferrato in Piedmont.

Food is cooked in front of customers on “incandescent plates”.

See Romolo Stanco’s Elfostudio recording studio in our earlier story.

The following information is from the architect:
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Sushi Style:
X - Grill / Beef and Vegetables Grill Bar
Perspective, presence in space and interaction with the place represent the conditions that trigger emotions, feelings, and opinions. They all depend on the chosen viewpoint. By shifting to a different viewpoint, one sees everything in a new way: shadows, colours, volumes look different, and redesign space.

Grill X is based on this idea. Seeing, interacting, taking a peek, moving around in a place that has been made to be perceived from many perspectives: these elements are usually overlooked while planning traditional restaurants. In the Sushi bar they become predominant. Here looks, curiosity, the use of space are all mixed up in one huge eating area.

Grill X is inspired by the typical Sushi bar, but with a new approach. All food is prepared on incandescent plates that incessantly cook vegetables and beef directly under our eyes. We can take our meal sitting at the same bench where it was grilled.

The bench, looking like a monolith, a giant iceberg, dramatically divides the space, and at the same times stays incredibly permeable. It slides, it collapses, it melts under the burning plates, and yet it’s as solid as a drifting block of ice. It’s liquid, as well, as a living thing injured by use and by its function.

The construction of the X-Grill Bar has been completed in 13 days with a very low budget and after this summer it will become a franchising concept with the name Spiedonny.
Architect and Designer: Romolo Stanco
Design staff: Romolo Stanco, Martino Scolari
Client: Alba srl
Location: Casale Monferrato, Italy
Surface: 160 mq
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Posted by Rose Etherington




July 8th, 2008 at 6:16 am
very very nice desing. thanks
July 8th, 2008 at 8:52 am
yuk.
too sterile, no character
July 8th, 2008 at 9:03 am
ipodtecture
July 8th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Absolutely awful, sterile environment. This place is for enjoying a meal in, not for perfoming lab tests. And those Ross Lovegrove chairs are just about the ugliest on the market. Very predictable.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:03 am
maybe it looks different/better when there are people and food around..:)
July 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
graphics. lamps and furniture are very bad! too commercial
July 8th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Love the chairs! The design does seem heavy handed but the low budget/short construction time gives it a pass I guess. Kinda depressing to think they will soon be all over Italy.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I agree with others, it looks just a bit too hard and sterile for a restaurant. Remember when Miranda Richardson played “Bettina, the Queen of Minimalism,” on Absolutely Fabulous? THIS looks like the kind of eatery she’d be comfortable in … if “comfortable” is an applicable term.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
worst chairs out there. so uncomfortable and wobble like crazy when you sit in them.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Sterile????
It’s a no space, a space odyssey restaurant, excellent work.
It’s amazing I love it!
July 9th, 2008 at 2:02 am
i would really like to see what the ’stlye’ for lack of a better word will look like.. if they keep with the ‘mod’ look i think it will be a little much… if they go for a more rustic feel maybe the contrast would be enough to pull it off??
last thing i would want to see is suits in here sitting on the akward stools… places like that never fly…
think casual / quick / convienient / clean (the modern look the have now)..
good luck!
jonathan
dailydesignspot.com
July 9th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Lovegroves chairs are rancid and unstable I agree. The space reminds me of just about everyother coffee bar or ice cream parlour you might find in an airport.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
horrible
July 9th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome in XXI century!
Semplicity and personality here, not only a fashionable minimalism
This restaurant looks like a Jonathan Ive architecture.
Great work.
Well done mr. Stanco!
July 10th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Reminds me of the Newson Mash Bar in LOndon that was designed at the end the ninties. BTW what are we supposed to be appreciating here ?
July 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I like it.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
awesome combination of shapes, volumes and colours, great restaurant….awesome enviroment. congratulations.