WHO WE WERE:
We were always Amy Butchko, sometimes Sam Buffa, and once Zeb Stewart (Frenchette); old friends and autodidacts who have worked in, owned, occasionally been asked to leave, and in general thoroughly enjoyed bars & restaurants around the world. We approached our projects with the sense of an operator and the enthusiasm of customer, viewed through the lens of a critic. We were selective in taking on clients, as we gave ourselves fully to whatever it was we committed to—and were lucky enough to receive much satisfaction in return.
WHAT WE DID:
We appreciated honest spaces—ones that felt lived in, unplanned, comfortable-yet-surprising, and inspiring. We welcomed happy accidents. Timelessness was the key to our kingdom, intuition was our guiding light (but exactitude was the coin of the realm). We endeavored to imbue our projects with both fresh perspectives and scads of antiques, and above all to transport to places unimagined all who entered.
We worked with ownership teams from conception through completion, and called upon our deep network of collaborators and fabricators to create designs that were layered, complex, and memorable. Our process was organic, conducted in large part in situ; we listened to the songs sung by buildings’ bones, and harmonized.