Inside Lore in Park Slope. | Kate Previte
Brandon Hoy had a problem. It was 2007, and the restaurateur behind Foul Witch and Blanca was building the original Roberta’s in Bushwick when his plumber quit, leaving a graveyard of pipes and a pipe cutter behind. Hoy was pissed, but he had an epiphany. He needed to build the bases for bar stools, tables, and chairs. “I had this cutter. I am handy. I figured it out quickly,” he said, reflecting on how he repurposed his plumber’s abandoned pipes into restaurant furniture. “The longer you are in this business, the more thrifty you become.”
For Hoy, who now has multiple Roberta’s and R Slice locations, the old pipes were just the beginning of his DIY journey. He makes wall coverings from restaurant photos and uses old barn doors for communal tables. For lighting, a huge cost, he opts for cheap outdoor fixtures, hand-painted.
Even at their new Manhattan location, Hoy leans into DIY. To create a private dining area, he used a shade cloth pinned up with carabiners instead of custom curtains. “It’s cheap, but it’s fire-rated,” he said. “All in it cost me $300, whereas if I went with custom drapery it would have been $3000.”
Among tariffs, rising rents, and soaring labor, food, and insurance costs, it’s a challenge for some restaurants to open — particularly independent ones without big backers — let alone afford design. It typically runs about 10 percent of construction costs, or $100,000 for an 80-seat restaurant, according to Rick Camac of RDC Hospitality Consultants. Whether it’s in response to these rising costs or just a way some restaurateurs get creative, design hacks are helping them cut costs, often resulting in one-of-a-kind details.
“Operating a restaurant in today’s climate is harder than ever, so dipping into any cash reserves set aside for working capital before you’ve even opened your doors can really hurt your chances of survival,” said Elise Rosenberg, who transformed Gran Electrica, a casual Mexican restaurant with dark walls and edgy decor, into Hildur, a soft space with a pretty mid-century vibe. “Thinking creatively about every design detail large or small — the savings add up. No detail is too insignificant.”
To bring in high impact at a low cost, Kilhstrom grabbed a can of brass spray paint and used it everywhere: on black wine racks from Amazon, the stainless steel grab bars in the bathrooms, and on the bar hooks, all spray-painted to look like bougie brass. For hardware, she had her heart set on pieces from the posh Devol kitchen and stopped herself. “I was about to get hardware that was almost $200 per piece,” said co-owner Emelie Khilstrom. A designer friend suggested she buy cheap hardware ($8 each) and sent her a video of how to soak it in vinegar and salt so it would look distressed. She saved nearly a thousand dollars.
The partners also saved on doors, opting to keep the old hollow ones from Gran Electrica rather than replace them with solid wood, $1200 apiece. Instead, they cut the top part of the door out and added a ribbed glass insert, a hack that brings lightness to the long hallway. The team saved even more on the cherry-wood bar, which didn’t suit Hildur’s aesthetic. When they were priced out of the zinc bar of their dreams, they leaned into a material often used in Sweden: concrete. Kilhstrom had her contractor build an oak frame around the old bar and poured concrete over the top. The result looks far more costly than its $60 price tag. “It is what we have to do to make design work economically,” said Khilstrom.
Khilstrom and Rosenberg do splurge on a few things: plateware, to honor the food, and walls, hiring plasterers from Camp Studios. “When you spend on the walls, you can go minimal with other things. It makes such an impression,” said Khilstrom. “The walls almost dance.”
Glen Coben, the principal of Glen & Co, an architecture and design firm responsible for restaurants such as Empellón and Francie, recommends restaurateurs use the bulk of their design budget on high-impact items that guests interact with — banquettes, chairs, lighting, and sound. “You should spend money on the noticeable things that add to the guest experience,” he said. “If you want people to spend more than 45 minutes in the restaurant, you have to think about aesthetics, but also operations and overall user experience.”
Even Michelin-star chefs in luxe spaces are leaning into hacks. At Michael White’s newly opened Santi, dozens of original paintings hang on the walls, giving the space the feel of a museum gallery. “We buy things in yard sales on our travels,” said partner Bruce Bronster. “This is an extraordinarily expensive build-out, but I try not to spend unnecessary money. That’s my design hack.”
DIY decor also adds to a project’s sustainability. Daria Greene, who owns Lore and the soon-to-open Folk in Park Slope with her husband, the chef Jay Kumar, used Craigslist, Etsy, and eBay to amass a collection of 1960s Italian Empoli glass from collectors, which she loves because it adds a sense of history to the restaurant.
“There are so many personalities in these objects,” she said. “Everything feels like it had a life.”
Some owners are even bringing in objects from home with personal value. At Confidant, which just opened in Industry City from alumni of Roberta’s, the “To the Bar” sign had been in chef Brendan Kelley’s family for generations – starting out in his grandparents’ inn where his parents first met, then moving to his childhood home. The oversized painting of a French bulldog baker hanging in the entryway was originally purchased by his parents at Goodwill.
“I have been trying to get that painting for years. My parents said not until you open your own restaurant,” he said. “Now I finally have it.”
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