丨意大利的里雅斯特

zeroquaranta

ristorante social food

trieste, italia

2014

FOTO DI marco ravo

The Zeroquaranta is located on the Canale di Ponterosso, a striking location. The idea of social food is that clients and friends would come to meet and socialize as their main goal, using food mainly as an excuse to spend time together.

This meant we had to think of a place where the environment and the atmosphere had to be informal and welcoming, allowing for different uses throughout the day, from breakfast, brunch, hamburger and lobster lunch, till night drinks and crazy night dances.

In order to achieve a ‘familiar’ feeling we decided to use the materials of the local tradition and only recycled furniture from other venues in the city.

We recovered the bar from a historical electric material shop, the big steel columns from a famous brewery, the lamps from the warehouses in the port area. The tables and the benches are made of construction planks. The mezzanine is made out of steel leftovers. The stone arch and the bricks have been taken out of plaster.

Altogether the Zeroquaranta is a very welcoming venue, it’s sustainable and doesn’t feel fake or contrived, and the big success proves it.

The different seating options, the kitchen, the tavern style mezzanine, are close enough to each other to spark social interaction between very different people, making it a very lively place.

Although working with strict historical building rules, we managed to complete everything as designed.