A diverse palette of stone played an integral part in transforming a vacant space into an Italian-style villa for the opening of Fiola da Fabio Trabocchi — a new restaurant in Washington, DC. With the location having previously housed several failed restaurant concepts in a short span of time, it was important that the new design be fresh and inviting. The mix of stone mosaics and rough-cut stone proves just the right combination to entice patrons.
“We knew that we were in for a challenge when our clients chose a ‘cursed’ space for their new restaurant,” said architect Griz Dwight of GrizForm Design Architects in Washington, DC. “The location had housed five different restaurant concepts in the past 10 years — with the space sitting vacant the last two of those years. Even more challenging was the fact that four of the five unsuccessful restaurants were Italian in concept — the same type of cooking that our clients planned on serving. In short, they chose a restaurant graveyard, and a good portion of our budget needed to go towards an exorcism.”