Pastificio Occhiolino is a light-filled, pared-back space organized around an open kitchen and pasta laboratory, which allows diners to observe both the pasta-making and pasta-cooking processes.
Originally a carriage house and, more recently, a mechanic garage, the building’s working-class past and no-nonsense architecture made it an ideal setting for the unfussy restaurant the owners wanted to introduce to the city
“From the start, we knew Occhiolino would not be a plate by tweezer type of restaurant, that the owners wanted a casual comfortable space, and we wanted that comfort to thread from cuisine to design.” — Guido Costantino Projects
The studio avoided luxurious materials and ornamentation which felt wholly inappropriate to the building’s history and form, as well as the restaurant’s philosophy.
The material palate is humble. Common materials, like wood and concrete brick, were used throughout. The brick is a stitch throughout the project, unifying the exterior to interior, and echoing the building’s modest nature.
Basic globe lighting fixtures—the kind you can find anywhere—are reimagined and customized in a creative way, dropping bashfully below the ceiling or emerging from carved drywall niches on the second floor.
Where possible, the existing structure was left untouched. The exterior arcaded brick wall is pinned away from the original structure, standing independent and creating a quiet dialogue between old and new, between functional and a hint of whimsy.
Similarly, within the restaurant, the new drywall floats off the original walls, never quite touching the original envelope. This deliberate space between old and new allows the building’s layers to remain visible—to reveal its traces, its memories, and the stories embedded within its fabric.
Expansive areas of flour-white walls provide visual breathing room in the restaurant, allowing the food process and diners to be the focus and to animate the space.
