During the Great Flood of St. Michaels on Saturday…
…my family and I drove cautiously into town in search of lunch. We ended up at this little restaurant* we’d never been to. The food was VERY good, and the prices were reasonable.
But we probably won’t go back.
Why? Because the interior was so bleak that even after my stomach was full, my spirits were sagging. I wish I were exaggerating, but tragically, I am not.
Here’s what the restaurant has going for it:
- Very good food
- Great location
- Charming historic building = funky interior space
- Lots of windows = good light
- Beautiful wood floors (they could stand to be refinished, but you can tell they’re great)
- And fun art.
(The artist’s name is Ted Lowry, but I couldn’t find any information about him. I thought his paintings were cheerful and fun…I just wish there were more of them.)
Those are the positives. But for me, the devil is in the details.
- The banquettes. ICK. The back cushions are light green scrubbable vinyl with some sort of scallop pattern. They could have been stolen from a nursing home.
- Booth setups. A long banquette against a wall is one thing, but creating separate booths in this space just felt wrong. It feels like a cheap pizza joint, not a restaurant in which you can order a lovely grilled vegetable sandwich.
- The seat cushions. The fabric on the chairs and the banquette seats is light green ultrasuede. I hope I don’t need to explain further.
- The tables. ICK AGAIN. Fake wood. Rarely a good idea. It’s cheap looking and tacky.
- An odd 2/3 wall when you first enter, presumably to create a proper entry and protect diners from the cold in the wintertime.
An overall sense of emptiness. Or loneliness. And it wasn’t just because there weren’t a lot of patrons that day. There wasn’t really anything wrong with the paint color (sort of a Navajo White, if I had to guess), and it looked like a fresh paint job…was it the odd layout? The booths chopping up a quirky space even further? Too many tables?
All of the above, I think. It wouldn’t take much to improve the space. May I suggest:
- Eliminating the booths in favor of freestanding tables and chairs.
- More interesting tables. Heck, they don’t even have to match. One table could be reclaimed wood, one could have a copper top, another could have a mosaic top…it would enliven the space and complement those nifty paintings.
- SOMETHING more colorful. If they went the mix ‘n match table route, that would do the trick. But if they did, say, ALL reclaimed wood tables, maybe a livelier color on the walls would make the space more cheerful. Nothing too dark, but maybe the right shade of green – not too minty? Or a nice sunny yellow?
I didn’t go in looking for a fight, I swear. I was just wet and hungry. But the reason I decided to blog about this is that the restaurant’s interior made me question my instincts about the food.
I couldn’t believe that a place this glum could produce anything I’d want to eat. Even after I was halfway through my delicious blackened catfish sandwich, I kept looking to my husband and brother for reassurance. “The food is really good, right? I’m not making it up? How’s yours? It’s good, right?”
Look. I don’t live here year-round. For all I know, this is THE PLACE TO BE and the last thing they need is advice from some bossy interloper. Based on my one visit, however, I strongly recommend they make at least those minor changes to the decor.
Because the food really, REALLY deserves it.
*The first picture (by Erin Fluharty for The Star Democrat) is of the flood, not the restaurant. I’m not going to mention the name of the restaurant, because I wish only the best for all St. Michaels businesses. Maybe the owner will see this post and ask me about paint colors, as those wise proprietors of Ava’s Pizzeria did.Annie Elliott – aka bossy color – is an interior decorator and design blogger in Washington, D.C. She has been quoted in publications from The Washington Post to The Seattle Times and is considered an expert on color, residential space planning, and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible.