Amavi Restaurant

The Challenge

The interior program at Amavi required one floor plan to sustain two fundamentally different modes of occupation simultaneously. The primary register is quiet, deliberate Mediterranean dining, shareable service, unhurried rhythm, the hospitality of a long meal. The secondary requirement is a venue capable of supporting cocktail service at the bar and private events in a dedicated VIP room, with enough spatial definition that neither mode compromises the other when they operate at the same time. Millwork is the primary instrument through which this modulation is achieved: it defines where the room changes character, and on what terms.

The interior anchors its Mediterranean identity through architectural elements the millwork had to read as continuous with, not applied over. Arched entry doors fitted with geometric metalwork grilles, heavily hand-troweled plaster surfaces on walls and columns, and a warm, layered natural palette establish the tonal frame. Within that frame, Bricble fabricated the functional systems; bar as service infrastructure, banquette runs and booth enclosures as the dining chassis, VIP room as a discrete zone within the same footprint. Each element was required to carry the material register of the architectural shell rather than interrupt it.

Signature Element: Bar Area and VIP Room

The bar at Amavi functions as the interior's operational anchor and the spatial hinge between the main dining floor and the cocktail program. As the highest-traffic fabrication in the space, it sustains full-service volume across a restaurant day while presenting a finish level consistent with the surrounding architecture.

The banquette seating system fabricated as a continuous run along the dining perimeter documents the construction standard that governs the full project. Each unit was built with a recessed toe kick carrying integrated LED strip lighting, creating a visual separation between seating base and floor that makes the mass of the seating read as suspended rather than bearing. The effect is functional: lifting the visual weight of the base opens the floor plane perceptually, expanding the apparent volume of the dining room without altering its physical dimensions. Built into the back of the banquette run is a continuous planter box, fabricated as a permanent architectural element rather than a freestanding fixture. The biophilic material it introduces sits directly at the diner's peripheral sightline, softening the room's boundary without reducing its enclosure.

Opposite the banquette, high-backed custom booths define the dining room's secondary boundary and its primary acoustic layer. Vertical channel-tufted upholstery on the booth panels provides sound absorption at the dining surface — reducing ambient noise without requiring a separate acoustic treatment program. Channel spacing was fabricated in coordination with table positions across the full run, producing a consistent visual rhythm along the wall that registers as intentional rather than incidental.

The VIP room required a distinct millwork character within the same footprint: an enclosed environment built for private gatherings, finished to the standard of the main dining floor while operating independently of it. [DATA REQUIRED — VIP room dimensions, enclosure materials, and specific millwork elements]

Scope and Integration

Beyond the bar and VIP room, Bricble's scope included custom cabinetry at service stations and back-of-house adjacencies, finished woodwork on decorative surfaces throughout the dining floor, and coordinated millwork across the full interior envelope.

The seating system — high-backed booths along one wall, continuous banquette runs along the other — was fabricated and installed as a coordinated assembly, not independent furniture pieces. Consistency of upholstery profile, base geometry, and finish treatment across both seating types establishes a single material language across the floor plan. This coherence is structural: it holds the interior's tonal register across the full service area without relying on lighting or decoration to unify what the fabrication didn't.

Custom cabinetry at the bar and service points addresses the operational program — storage, access, integrated service infrastructure — while maintaining the finish level of the guest-facing millwork. At Amavi's volume, service cabinetry is the point where back-of-house logistics interface with the dining environment. Bricble fabricated these elements to the same surface standard as the decorative woodwork, ensuring functional elements don't interrupt the interior's material continuity. Collectively, the bar, VIP room, seating systems, and cabinetry resolve the project's central tension: a single floor plan that holds refined intimacy and social energy in simultaneous, compatible occupation.

Materials and Methodology

Amavi's interior palette is built on warm, matte natural surfaces — hand-troweled plaster, honed stone, and layered organic textures that absorb rather than reflect light. Bricble's fabrication was required to integrate within this palette: finished surfaces at the bar, booth panels, and cabinetry needed to carry the same tonal weight as the architectural shell while meeting the durability demands of full-service restaurant operation.

Installation in a working restaurant requires coordinated sequencing with electrical rough-in for integrated lighting, plumbing access at the bar, and MEP distribution across the service envelope.

The durability of the fabrication standards established at the NYC flagship is reflected in their translation to Miami. When Agsia studio designed the Midtown Miami location — a 4,000-square-foot space anchored by a 33-foot natural stone bar — the NYC interior served as the primary spatial and material reference. That the fabrication identity held clearly enough to be documented, translated, and extended across a second market is a functional indicator of how the New York millwork was specified and executed.