Restaurant Design Video Series: David Rockwell and Danny Meyer

Culinary-minded design aficionados fit themselves into every available nook of the New York Design Center’s Dennis Miller Associates showroom to hear the conversation between Union Square Hospitality Group’s Danny Meyer and Rockwell Group’s David Rockwell. The two, who have developed a patter worthy of television’s talk-show circuit, spoke on a panel moderated by Interior Design editor in chief Cindy Allen at the recent NYDC Hospitality event Meyer riffed that he approached Rockwell because one experience with bad design had been enough: “It’s like a bad joke, you only need to experience it once.” Meanwhile Rockwell addressed the theatrical nature of restaurant design and notions of authenticity, using the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Maialino and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Untitled as examples. Getting them to talk about their upcoming project proved more difficult, with neither giving so much as a hint of what’s to come.