MEGU
New York City
Kajima Associates

Yasumichi Morita brings his high-energy brand of modern Japanese design to America and gives a showstopping performance

© Nacasa & Partners

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By Clifford A. Pearson

The man behind Megu is Koji Imai, a 35-year-old entrepreneur who has 30 restaurants in Japan. With Megu, his first foray into the American market, Imai hopes to kick-start a run of restaurants in New York and perhaps other parts of the U.S. To lead the design team for his American flagship, Imai hired Yasumichi Morita, a young Osaka-based designer who had worked with him on Maimon, a restaurant that opened in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in 2002.

Part of a new generation of supersize restaurants opening in Manhattan, Megu sprawls over 14,000 square feet and includes a vermilion-colored "Kimono Bar," an "Imperial Lounge" overlooking the dining room, a small VIP lounge originally conceived as a smoking room, a sushi bar, and a private dining room adjacent to the kitchen, in addition to the 200-seat main dining room.

The action begins on the sidewalk, where guests can see a backlit, mosaiclike wall in the foyer emblazoned with a red Japanese sun in the center. Closer inspection reveals the wall to be made of porcelain sake bottles and rice bowls stacked one atop the other so they form columns. Reinterpreting icons of Japanese culture and using old materials in strikingly new ways turn out to be key themes tying together Megu’s conspicuous displays of imagination.

After the porcelain bottle-and-bowl wall, the first full dramatic scene happens in the bar, where rolls of kimono fabric line two walls, and squares of the same fabric form a kind of quilt stretched over a long light box above the bartenders. Morita used mirrors and the room’s vibrant Chinese red to crank up the impact of the luxurious kimono material, creating a dazzling, almost kaleidoscopic effect even before customers order their drinks. He also choreographed the experience of moving through the restaurant; for example, directing customers down a paired set of narrow stone stairs, so the double-height dining room looks even bigger when they arrive at their tables. At almost every turn, Morita found yet another ingenious way of treating familiar materials.

Holding center stage in the dining room is a giant, 700-pound bell, a facsimile of a much heavier one at a temple in Nara, Japan. Sitting below is a Buddha ice sculpture, slowly melting into a pool decorated with floating hibiscus leaves. Bordering on kitsch, the bell and Buddha serve as a visual anchor to the large dining hall.

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Formal name of Project:
MEGU www.megunyc.com

Location:
New York City

Gross square footage:
14,000 sq. ft.

Owner:
Koji Imai/Food Scope New York, Inc.

Architect:
Kajima Associates, Inc.
395 W. Passaic Street, 2nd floor
Rochelle Park, NJ 07662
t. (201) 518-1500
f. (201) 518-1535
www.kajimausa.com