The Must is a 4,100 sf, two-story neighborhood restaurant and wine bar located inside a historic printing factory. One of our chief goals was to create a connection to the community by opening the facade to create an inviting indoor/outdoor bar and cozy dining room. We also inserted a private wine cellar in the basement. We changed the use of the existing space from retail and storage to a restaurant, lounge, and tavern then obtained a conditional use permit for beverages.

For the indoor/outdoor areas, we designed a series of moveable partitions inspired by an image of a European train station. We extended the bar through the dining room and into the patio, allowing guests to sit inside or out. When the panels are in the open position, the dining room is completely open to the patio, letting abundant natural light into the dining room and allowing for additional seating configurations. We worked with a food service consultant to design the kitchen and bar spaces, and created a new stair and elevator to access the bathrooms, wine lockers, dry storage, cold storage, keg room and subterranean private tasting room.