酒窝 is a high end, Japanese private dining and lounge venue in Shanghai, offering refined and discrete hospitality to the owners guests on a par with a luxury hotel restaurant.

酒窝 comprises a 360sqm space which occupies the entire 5th floor of a refurbished industrial building on Anfu Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai.  This space includes a generous lounge seating area, private meeting facilities and two Private Chef rooms with seating arranged around a U-shaped counter.  These intimate rooms are skillfully woven into the fabric of the existing building, creating a carefully considered customer journey which reveals a balanced mix of public and private spaces.  The venue also has a large 130sqm roof terrace on which a series of pavilions are constructed to extend the sense of intimacy and privacy to the exterior.

The design concept behind 酒窝 originates with the character of the ‘Itamae’: the cook or chef in a high-end Japanese kitchen.  The term can be translated literally as “in front of the board”, referring to a cutting board.  An Itamae is judged on how they move and work, how they handle the food and utensils and how they treat their clients.  We extended the idea of the Itamae to the interior design: a refined and respectful interior space was created to mirror the respect and reverence that the Itamae gives to the preparation and presentation of Japanese cuisine.

▼休息区，lounge ©Seth Powers