New Work: Potenza Bar
Earlier in the year, we worked on a zinc bar for the Potenza, a rustic southern Italian themed restaurant and bar in downtown Washington, DC. Early this morning, we stopped back in to inspect how the surface was holding and look at a few areas which will need touch-up. Of course I took the time to snap some pictures!
The Potenza is located in the Woodward Building at 15th and H St, NW. The latest venture from Stir Food Group, who also run the acclaimed Zola Restaurant a few blocks away, the Potenza serves breads, pastas, wine, and desserts in a comfortable setting. From the restaurant’s web site:
Prepare yourself for a place steeped in tradition, comfort and warmth. Located in the historic Woodward Building, architectural details are preserved, incorporated into a space that houses an active open kitchen. It’s a feeling of old world detail that you might expect to find in Foggia, Italy.
The combination of old world charm and exquisite dining draws you into the surroundings and energy of the inviting room, the unique food and the matchless service.
This kind of texture just has to happen through hard use; I mean, this bar was beautiful when we left it in February, but the thing about zinc is that it just keeps acquiring more and more texture. Browns, grays, even shades of purple. Perfect for dimly-lit sections.
Some of the texture is governed by usage — the moisture rings from drinks, the worn spots along the edge where patrons rest their elbows, the slide marks along the drink rail where glass are collected — but some of these textures and patterns that occur are just completely unpredictable.
The side of the bar facing the street windows. Texture looks much more muted with natural lighting.
With a completion date in February during the busiest season Washington had seen in many years (remember Inauguration Day?), there was utter chaos installing this counter. From the time the bar was ready for us to template until completion time, there was less than three weeks—and much of this time while most of downtown DC was essentially shut down for inauguration security. Given all that confusion, its perhaps to be expected that issues would have arisen. In this case, it was a weld which had begun to split. Ah well. That’s why we warranty our products.
One more picture. There’s a cool LED detail underneath the bar. I think the design concept here was to deter bar patrons from sticking their gum underneath the bar.
- Project date: February 2009
- Architect: CORE architecture | design; coredc.com
- Materials: .060″ zinc
| Comments: 