Cafeteria restaurant - New York, USA

Fifteen years after it opened as Chelsea’s first ‘designer’ diner, Cafeteria has received a subtle yet substantial (and much-needed) makeover. Along with ‘refreshing’ the restaurant’s main dining room, bar area and lower-level lounge, New York-based architect Anurag Nema of Nemaworkshop - who worked with Cafeteria’s original designer, Studio Gaia  - added a cosy, yet groovy, private dining room. The 20-seat space conforms to Cafeteria’s existing retro vibe with stainless steel and brown leather walls, creamy terrazzo floors, and a central butcher-block table, crafted from tropical Wenge wood. Similarly-styled tables fill the main dining room - which pours onto buzzy Seventh Avenue - along with white wall panels and cream coloured custom banquettes. Downstairs, Nema added brown chocolate floors and additional banquettes to create a sense of low-lit loucheness to Cafeteria’s lounge. There’s new food too: comfort classics such as shrimp and grits for breakfast and pulled-pork sliders for dinner. And out front, Cafeteria’s new façade is punctuated with garage-like, industrial-styled windows that help prevent heat loss and perfectly frame the restaurant’s pretty, young diners.