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Tom Allisma:
Developing a taste |
Allisma Residence
For his masters thesis project, Allisma renovated his old bedroom and an adjacent room in his parents’ home into an apartment with a kitchen space, bathroom, office/studio, gallery, living area, and a private entry. Allisma and his father did all the physical construction on the project as well, with a budget of $15,000.
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Allisma wanted to be a designer and never expected to become involved in development, much less the restaurant business. However, soon after beginning his career with a local architecture firm, he became good friends with Nick Hogan, a developer and attorney. Hogan asked Allisma to design an office space for his real estate development company, which earned an awards citation at the 2002 Central State AIA Awards. Following the success of that collaboration, Hogan made Allisma another offer: an opportunity to partner in the development of a sushi restaurant. Allisma had never tried the cuisine but thought the idea of “raw fish in the heart of corn country” was intriguing. After a trip to the West Coast and his first taste of sushi (he liked it), he designed a restaurant based on “coastal abstractions.” BLUE Sushi Sake Grill includes water features and a 30-foot-long, blue-laminate, backlit canopy over the dining room. Birch plywood, canvas, and copper round out the soothing material palette, balanced by stained concrete floors and bar counters.
BLUE quickly became a local sensation. Encouraged by its success, Allisma and Hogan continued to develop restaurant concepts, investing equal finances up front and sharing ownership with the remaining percentage sold to the chef or restaurant manager. In late 2004, they unveiled Roja Mexican Grill, followed by Bianco Ristorante Italiano. Both spaces were again inspired by Allisma’s travels. Roja’s “industrial Mexican” aesthetic—incorporating corrugated metal, concrete, copper, cultured stone, and raw wood—is his modern interpretation of Spanish Colonial architecture. Bianco, influenced by northern Italy, features an orange-and-white acrylic lantern that acts as divider/seating between bar and restaurant.
Parallel to the success of his restaurant ventures, Allisma fulfilled his dream of establishing Tom Allisma Productions. More than half of his clients are customers from his restaurants and bars who admired the design and commissioned him to do their homes or businesses. “A whole new world of opportunities opened up to me … a client list that I would have never been able to establish without the exposure of all my business ventures.”
Allisma and Hogan have several restaurant and bar projects set to open at the beginning of 2008 and are constantly coming up with new ideas. The collaboration, Allisma says, has been “amazing. We complement each other. Nick has a legal/finance background and [my] design/marketing background really helps out as we develop new concepts.”
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