Cafe and restaurant architecture · Montenegro
We designed a waterfront restaurant on a Montenegrin quay.
A narrow quay in front of a historic building, facing the water head-on. To let one operation work on an open terrace in summer and in an enclosed room in winter, we split the space into three stages. Below we set out how those stages were built and which constraint produced which decision.
- Location
- Montenegro, waterfront
- Space type
- Restaurant, open terrace and enclosed room
- Scope
- Interior design, shopfront layout and visualisation
- Stage
- Design
Design principle
The real problem for a waterfront venue is not the view; it is how many months of the year that view can be sold. A seaside project that does not extend the season is a handsome photograph closed for half the year.
01
Three stages of the quay
The strip in front of the building could have been used as a single piece; we did not. The band closest to the water became a fully open terrace, the middle band a glazed winter garden, and the inside of the shell stayed as the main room working all year.
In operating terms this split means that when the weather turns the terrace empties but the venue does not close: the guest simply moves one stage inward. In a single-volume layout the same change of weather would end the day.
The transitions between stages were kept level. Service reaches all three bands along the same line, so changing stage never lengthens the distance between a waiter and the kitchen.
02
Sizing the open terrace
The open terrace is defined by a white pergola. The pergola is there for boundaries rather than shade: on an uncovered terrace the tables drift, and the opening-day layout is gone a week later. The beams overhead make that layout permanent.
The tables sit in two long rows, with the aisle between them reserved for service and never narrowed. The commonest mistake on a waterfront is to eat into that aisle to add one more table in the front row. The table looks like income; what follows is slower service.
The pendant bulbs hang on the beam line. In the evening the light reads as a horizontal line and holds the terrace up as a volume in front of the dark water.
03
Identity at the entrance
The entrance is glazed on both sides, which leaves no surface for identity to stand on. So we moved the brand light inside, onto a green textured wall. Someone looking in from outside sees that light first, through the glass.
The yellow neon against the green wall is a deliberate contrast. By day the texture leads; in the evening the neon does. The same surface reads two ways depending on the hour, and the venue shows two different faces to the street.
No table was placed beside the entrance door. With the door swing left clear, someone stepping in can pause and look without disturbing anyone, and those few seconds are when the decision to stay is made.
04
Warmth in the enclosed room
The enclosed room was tuned to the opposite of the terrace. Outside is open, bright and windy; inside should be dark, low and still. Repeating the same atmosphere would leave a guest moving inward with no sense of having changed place.
The ceiling was kept dark and the pendant bulbs hung at close intervals. As the light source drops towards eye level the volume comes down with it, and in a high room that is the cheapest way to give someone at a table a sense of their own zone.
The tables are built from three things: a dark top, a timber chair and a turquoise seat pad. The turquoise is not incidental — the colour of the water outside returns indoors as textile.
05
Arched niches and brick
Had the long wall of the room been left flat, the tables along it would look like a row set against a corridor. We broke the wall into arched niches, and each niche takes one group of tables into its own frame.
The niches are brick, the panels between them dark timber. Two materials alternating make the depth of the room measurable — a guest knows where they are by counting the niches they have passed.
The brand mark sits inside one of those niches, on planted texture. Putting identity into the architecture rather than onto a sign also decides which wall people photograph.
06
The bar and the long axis
The bar was moved to one side of the long axis rather than the middle. A bar in the middle cuts the room in two and leaves neither half large enough; against the side it keeps the room whole and uses the shelving behind it as a backdrop.
The lit frames repeating to the end of the axis stretch the perspective on purpose. In a narrow, deep room that repetition is the most direct way of making the space read larger, and it also lets a waiter tell from a distance which zone they are in.
Decisions and common mistakes
| Item | Settled in the design | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Season | Open terrace, glazed band and enclosed room can each work on their own. | All the seating goes onto the open terrace and the season shrinks to four months. |
| Service aisle | One line reaches all three stages, and the aisle is never narrowed. | The aisle is eaten into to add one more table in the view row. |
| Wind | The glazed band shelters the terrace without closing it; the open terrace stays uncovered. | The whole terrace is glazed and the option of sitting outside is lost. |
| Identity | The brand light was moved to an internal wall behind the glazed front. | The project relies on a sign, and a glazed front leaves no surface to carry it. |
Frequently asked
- What extends the season for a waterfront venue?
- Do not tie the seating to a single stage. Here the open terrace, the glazed middle band and the enclosed room were set up to work separately, so when the weather turns the guest moves one stage inward and the venue stays open. Because there are no thresholds between the stages, service continues along the same line.
- Is a pergola necessary on an open terrace?
- Not always for shade, but usually for order. On an uncovered terrace the tables drift from their opening layout within weeks. With a grid of beams overhead the table line is read against it and the layout holds. Here the pergola is also the structure the evening lighting hangs from.
- How is a narrow, deep room made to read larger?
- By breaking up the long wall and repeating one element along the axis. Here the wall was divided into arched niches, and lit frames repeat at the same spacing to the end of the room. The eye measures depth by counting that repetition. The opposite approach — a flat wall and tighter tables — turns the same room into a corridor.
- Do you work on venues abroad?
- Yes, this project was prepared for the Montenegrin coast. The drawings and visuals are ours. Permits, fire and coastal rules differ in every country, so we run that part together with the architect of record or contractor on the ground.
Let’s talk about your space.
If you have the dimensions of the quay and an idea of the operation, let us sit down and talk. Tell us how many months you want the season to run and we will work out the rest together.