In the first of a series of video tours of notable commercial projects, RECORD visited a new Japanese dessert restaurant in Manhattan with a unique, Minimalist façade and an interior that manages to be both ultra-modern and warm and casual. The owners also discussed with us the impact they expect the strong design to have on their bottom line.

“The design of [our] space and the food that [we] serve customers go hand-in-hand—if one is out of synch with the other, then the whole [project] doesn’t work,” says Nicole Bermensolo, co-owner of Kyotofu. “So design for us is just as important as the food we are feeding to our customers.”

Kyotofu’s architect, Hiromi Tsuruta, of New York’s Studio März , is known both for his work on some of the city’s more celebrated Japanese restaurants—Momofuku, ChikaLicious—and for his ability to make small, cramped spaces feel open and inviting.

In the video, Tsuruta explains the inspiration for the café’s notable street front: a clean, almost stark face on a block crowded with awnings and oversized signs.

Bryant Rousseau

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