Atelier-inspired restaurant Sartoria Lamberti has opened its doors on the ground floor of The Ritz-Carlton Moscow. Designed by Megre Interiors, the experiential venue combines a fashion museum, on-site working tailor shop and a new age kitchen, capturing the vision of Italian chef and restaurateur Uilliam Lamberti.
Named Sartoria Lamberti as ‘sartoria’ translates to tailor, the space was conceived as a place where food and fashion are intertwined as closely as possible. As guests enter, they are welcomed by a small studio in which a seamstress embroiders monograms on gifts. Next to it is an open-air kitchen, where the chefs prepare a selection of classic and modern fashionable Italian dishes.
Diners will also see dressmaking patterns and famous Hollywood fashion costumes from the archives of Camera Nazionale Della Moda Italiana on mannequins in shining showcases, while each year the sartoria will collaborate with one of Italy’s finest tailors to create a collection of designer costumes for the waiters.
“Food and fashion are the two things that Italians have in their blood,” says Lamberti. “I dreamed of combining them in one project, because both of them are not only about beauty and taste. They are about an individual approach to each guest and the highest level of service, a distinctive feature of Neapolitan sartoria.”
Since the restaurant is located inside the hotel, Megre Interiors decided to create a grand entrance for a smooth transition between the contrasting atmosphere of the restaurant and the hotel. The second, street entrance welcomes guests with a host counter and vintage sewing machine, which takes them on a journey through a mirror-clad corridor before opening up in the heart of the dining space.
The site is also interconnected, meaning all functions and zones combine to form a whole – fitting seamlessly like parts of a perfectly tailored suit. However, the space did pose some challenges; it is long and narrow with only two windows in the end, and originally the restaurateur intended to stretch the open kitchen along its entire length. To combat the issue, Megre Interiors proposed an island-based approach that would split the long space into three equal parts: an open kitchen, a seating area adjacent, and a grand space next to the windows. The latter can be separated from the rest of the restaurant with heavy velvet curtains and features integrated soundproofing for private functions.
Everything here is about the sartoria, not only the pattern cabinets and costumes displays; the open kitchen is an arrangement of sewing desks, the seating next to the kitchen is like a dressing room, the tailor’s sofas are stacks of fabrics, and the brass columns were inspired by the tailor’s thimbles – adorning the name of the restaurant. Bocci chandeliers are inspired by shirt cuffs and rolls of thread while the fireplace, with white candle wax overflowing onto the floor, was designed to resemble a tri-fold dressing room mirror. For the attentive guest, there are also plenty of hidden details, such as the ruler notches on the sides of the smoked oak tables and even forks and knives with a needle eye.
