By The Sea

Coastal Mediterranean restaurant in Coronado

Coronado and the Mediterranean coast share an easy relationship with light and air, and the owners wanted a restaurant that lived in exactly that. Our work opened the building to orange Avenue: floor-to-ceiling pocket doors, operable windows on three sides, and twin peaked skylights over a dining room framed in exposed beams. A sculptural fluted travertine bar anchors the plan, with formed banquettes meandering through the front dining room beneath a hand-stained willow reed ceiling. Imported cobblestone, flagstone, Italian limestone, white oak, and reclaimed wood carry the warmth a literal coastal theme never quite manages. The booth tables, the thatch ceiling, and the reclaimed posts and beams were built in-house. From the fireplace lounge to the eucalyptus-trellis patio, it reads as quietly refined rather than themed, and as though it has been on this corner far longer than it has been.