"Exuberant" tiled facade fronts Bad Roman Beverly Hills by GRT Architects

Brooklyn studio GRT Architects has completed a second location for maximalist restaurant Bad Roman, creating an "evolution" of the New York original in Beverly Hills.

Bad Roman Beverly Hills opens this month as the second outpost of the brand from Quality Branded, following the initial location in Manhattan's Columbus Circle that opened in 2023.

GRT Architects founders Tal Schori and Rustam-Marc Mehta told Dezeen that the new restaurant captures "the unapologetically exuberant energy of Bad Roman New York, and adapting it to a characteristically Beverly Hills building and street".

The duo have known Quality Branded founder Michael Stillman since college, and collaborated closely on the concept that was new to both parties at the time.

"Since then, maximalism has perhaps moved into the mainstream in a way that can almost feel safe at times," said Schori and Mehta.

"We wanted to keep our exploration going – or maybe said more accurately, neither of us can stop tinkering – and so we tried to keep what worked but remain unafraid to experiment."

The Beverly Hills location offered the opportunity to extend the bold, colourful visual language to the building's facade, which "sets the tone" for the project.

Two-tone stripy green waves pattern the previously beige brickwork, while glass-block windows are surrounded by a checkerboard of natural stone and glossy tile in green and yellow.

Serpentine motifs and the hand-written Bad Roman logo glow with red neon across the windows, which also refract and diffuse the light inside.

"The facade was a huge step forward — broadcasting Bad Roman's exuberant energy out to an otherwise quite monochrome street," Schori and Mehta said.

The building's typology – a classic Los Angeles bowstring-truss-framed shed – also helped to inform decisions through the interiors.

"So often, these spaces are styled as bright and airy, filled with plants, so we pushed in the other direction," said the architects.

The team sprayed the entire trussed ceiling in sound- and light-absorbing, tinted natural cork to create a moodier atmosphere, while any floral motifs were reserved for embroidered upholstery.

GRT Architects worked with local neon artist Danielle Bonnet to create the tendrils that sprout from the Graniglia sconces and spiral around the insides of the chandeliers.

A series of faux-painted, bas-relief snakes that emerge from the tiled walls were made with the help of specialty fabricators Calico Design Manufacturing.

Along with the serpents, other creatures to be discovered from Ancient Rome and its mythology include greyhounds and a figure named Boaris.

As in New York, visitors are greeted by this neon-necklaced boar sculpture, which is based on a marble original in Florence's Uffizi Gallery.

"While the overall mood calls back to New York, our design for Beverly Hills is an evolution, not a duplication," said Schori and Mehta.

GRT Architects has completed a variety of other hospitality spaces, including Cucina Alba, San Sabino and Don Angie – all popular dining spots in Manhattan.

The firm's recent residential work spans the conversion of a neo-gothic Harlem rectory into a private residence, to the expansion of New Jersey warehouses into housing.

The photography is by Wonho Frank Lee, unless stated otherwise.

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