The term “Italian restaurant design” conjures up many iconic images: cozy booths, gallery walls, wooden bars, and red checkered tablecloths. But in recent years, these cornerstones have slowly been replaced by something entirely different: vibrant prints, colorful accents, and bold lighting. “Maximism is trending right now, and honestly, I think the Italians do it best!” says Hannah Collins, founder and head designer of ROY Design, the firm behind Corzetti, an Italian restaurant in San Francisco.
However, this didn’t happen overnight. In fact, in the early 2000s, Italian restaurants embraced a clean, modern aesthetic – almost the exact opposite of what’s in fashion today. Still, it paved the way for this new development. “We’ve lived with midcentury modern for so long that it’s natural for people to see a change that seems exciting and opposite to the last big trend movement,” Collins adds.
Although these changes are in line with broader design trends of recent years, the Italian-American restaurant featured such a distinct aesthetic when it debuted that its evolution stands out.
“Italian food has always been about perception and imagination,” says Ian McAllen, author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American. Originally, the design and cuisine of the establishments often reflected immigrants’ nostalgia for a fantastical, simplified homeland. In recent decades, however, the desire to travel to Italy has grown, and the maximalist design could express that desire. “For those who may not be able to travel to Sicily or Capri, the new red sauce restaurant offers a joyful, over-the-top escape,” adds McAllen.
Below, ADVERTISEMENT looks back at the origins and contemporary transformation of the legendary restaurants.
In 1886, the oldest Italian-American restaurant, Fior D’Italia, opened in San Francisco. The restaurant was founded at a time when people from all over the world were flocking to the state during the gold rush and the founder, Angelo Del Monte, had the idea of opening a restaurant for fortune hunters.
