Diner's Theater

JACX&CO is an elevated, multi-vendor, artisanal food hall serving the burgeoning office and residential community in Long Island City, Queens. INC Architecture & Design has created, for JACX&CO, a grand stage dedicated to the theater of gathering, drinking, and dining. A monumental and theatrical main dining room that pulls from the industrial influences of the immediate context has been rendered to feel like a lively public square. This perfectly proportioned, urban scale room is surrounded by a “scenic” blackened steel mesh scrim which forms a series of distinctive arches that frame the highly curated individual purveyors. Inspired by theatrical stagecraft, lighting plays an important role in “art directing” the shift from day to evening. The small-batch purveyor spaces are brightly lit during the morning and lunch services with the larger room lighted primarily with natural light. With the transition to the evening, the scrim glows dramatically shifting the focus from the purveyor stalls to the main dining room and event space. This trick of theatrical lighting allows a seamless transformation from the bustle of the day to a more refined evening experience. Materials like terra cotta tile, black steel, rugged wood flooring, and exposed concrete combine to provide the space with a warm tactile palette that is inviting to both the casual lunch patron as well as to a lingering evening crowd.

From

2018 to 2020

Project Team

Adam Rolston, Drew Stuart, Gabriel Benroth, Joselyn Dontfraid, Kay Kuo, Kazuki Daimo, Laura Heeter, Marissa N Zane, Say-Yee Tay, and Tyler M Kleck

Services

Interiors, FF&E, and Product Design

Part of

InteriorRestaurantAll