While headed down to Union Square for lunch today, I knew that one option would be eating at Republic, a noodle shop I like a lot. Unfortunately, I was on the fence about actually going there because of the weather.
It’s a beautiful day, but it was quite brisk out, and if you haven’t been there, Republic is a very open restaurant with lots of concrete and flat surfaces. I’ve only ever been there in the summer, and it has always been very cool on the interior, which perfectly suits the fresh food on its menu. The restaurant in my mind has always been a cold experience — as I pictured it in my head I had a hard time integrating the desire to eat good noodles with the desire to not be cold.
In the end we decided to eat noodles, and Republic defeated my expectations by being incredibly warm on the inside. Not just warmer than I expected, but distinctly warm, with the prominent sound of a heater working hard to fill the big space with heat.
Part of me wonders if this isn’t a deliberate choice on their part, to counteract the impression of a cool interior space by overheating it just a little. One practical side effect is, being so warm, the diners are free to choose from the entire menu — I had expected to have to restrict myself to the hot items on the menu so as to counteract the coldness within myself.
Comments
This reminds me of an anecdote I read somewhere about Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.
The main hall’s walls are beautifully curved concrete structures, but they’ve been clad in wood to give a perception of acoustical ‘warmth’ even though installing wood against a hard surface like that doesn’t really change the acoustics.
(if I remember right the hall’s acoustics are not rated very highly – not necessarily the fault of the materials; good acoustics are incredibly hard and presumably Gehry’s aesthetics added complexity to a difficult problem)