Acre Restaurant

The concept of the restaurant is to feature Midwestern cuisine prepared over a wood-burning hearth. The challenge was turning a British pub-themed restaurant in a strip mall into an elevated dining experience. Because the hearth is the focal point of the restaurant, the designers organized the entire space around it. This took a complete reorganization of the kitchen, bar and mechanical systems. When in use, the hearth provides the visual warmth of a fireplace and serves as the heart of the restaurant. Since fire and wood are the essence of how the food is prepared, wood as a material helped formulate the idea of a tree as a design feature.

Herron + partners conceptualized eating in the Midwest as a picnic and seeking shade from the sun. They used this idea for the dining area ceiling design by carving the acoustical panels with an abstract pattern of tree limbs to provide texture and layering of detail. A similar pattern is used for the wine display, where steel plate limbs are accented by colored tips of wine bottles that appear as colored leaves. Also, they conceptualized the need for wood as a material. The warmth and color of the wood provide visual comfort and texture. In the reception area, a carved cube contains warm brown-stained wood on the inside while the outside has a charred black stain linking back to the wood burning in the hearth. Wood tables and chairs and wood-like LVP flooring were used to create a natural material palette.