Place du Marché
“This restaurant is the best tool we have in Paris”
Serenest. The operator.
The Place du Marche is the new market hall where self service diners headed for Le Square pass through to view the day’s menu and select from a number of open kitchen serveries. As well as appetizing dishes prepared by chefs in front of your eyes, there are groceries and fresh produce including fish for sale.
This is a simple vintage-style interior carved out of the restricted underground areas of the building. The previous canteen had featured a number of kitchens spaced around the perimeter of the dining zone, some obviously closed and others creating bottlenecks and queues. By reworking the plan to provide all serveries within a market hall we successfully consolidated kitchen space and simplified the circulation system. This practical solution also enabled a visual and olfactory feast - a gastronomic experience with fresh surprises each day. We used white metro tiles, painted cabinets, quartz surfaces, oak panelling and blue feature tiles as a practical backdrop to the stunning display of food.
Private Dining
Surrounding Le Square is a series of smaller dining rooms designed to provide a more secluded experience. Here are nooks and corners to hide away and eat lunch in peace away from the extrovert crowd at the centre of the Square or Verriere. These areas also serve as meeting rooms throughout the day.
Far from daylight, these spaces were in in danger of feeling subterranean. We introduced a series of portals and apertures ensuring no space was without a view of the central garden. We designed a back wall of timber fins with concealed lighting to provide subtle illumination.
