March 16, 2021

Text: Annie Block

Gin Design Group Outfits Houston’s Ginger Kale with Stadium Seating

Under the café’s glued laminated timber ceiling beams, custom tables and stools are stained or spun white oak and the counter skirt is clay brick. Photography by Claudia Casbarian/Julie Soefer Photography.

Location, some say, is everything. It certainly is a major boon for Ginger Kale, a new veggie-centric café in Houston. Possibly the city’s only restaurant to have a lakefront view, in this case of McGovern Lake, “We purposefully limited the palette to five natural elements,” designer Gin Braverman explains, “so the setting remains the prime focus.” Beyond the 180-degree glass facade, Gin Design Group outfitted the airy 1,300-square-foot interior with custom furnishings and finishes in wood, exposed brick, leather, concrete, and rope. The latter three compose a show-stopping sitting area: Backing stadium-style benches is a wall-size macramé installation by Nancy McElligott, who Braverman discovered on Etsy. It’s the perfect perch for gazing out at the water while enjoying matcha strawberry chia pudding and an Oh Kale Yeah! cold-pressed juice.

For Ginger Kale in Houston, Gin Design Group installed stadium-style seating of poured-in-place concrete and leather seat pads and commissioned a 5-by-10-foot cotton wall hanging from Nancy McElligott of Zigzag Macramé. Photography by Claudia Casbarian/Julie Soefer Photography.
Juice packaging is by Ordinary Concepts. Photography by Claudia Casbarian/Julie Soefer Photography.

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