Restoration Hardware blurs lines between retail and hospitality
RH (formerly called Restoration Hardware) has taken its experiential retail concept to Toronto.
The luxe home furnishings brand opened a four-level, nearly 70,000-sq.-ft. store at Yorkdale Shopping Center. The space reflects the latest iteration of RH's design gallery format and its continued foray into the hospitality sector. It features a full-service restaurant and also a cafe.
“The vision for our new design galleries has been to blur the lines between residential and retail, and create spaces that are more home than store," said RH chairman and CEO Gary Friedman. "The next logical step was to further blur the lines between home and hospitality, with an integrated restaurant, wine and coffee bar."
Friedman said that the new RH location goes far beyond attaching a restaurant onto a store, noting "that’s been done before."
"What’s unique, is we’ve created a completely integrated hospitality experience, led by famed Chicago restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff, that reflects our taste, style and point of view," he said. (Sodikoff is the founder, CEO and creative director of Hogsalt Hospitality, a rapidly growing Chicago-based restaurant group.)
Conceptualized as a grand-scale contemporary structure filled with fresh air and natural light, RH Toronto features glass-and-steel French doors that open onto a streetscape accented with Boston ivy, geometric topiaries and more. The store's eastern entrance within Yorkdale features a terraced façade of Venetian plaster and a lush interior courtyard flanked by open-air loggias serving as the central location for the restaurant, the Courtyard Café. Patrons sit beneath olive trees and a 140-ft.-wide skylight that floods the space with natural light.
The RH Barista Bar is located in the central hall, which features 14-ft. ceilings. The coffee cafe is defined by a Tuscan colonnade and facet-edged limestone slabs.
The store is marked by artistic installations of home furnishings in a gallery setting, with entire floors dedicated to RH Interiors, RH Modern and RH Outdoor. It also includes an interactive "design atelier," offering professional interior design services in a studio environment. A conservatory and park are located on the roof. The 12,000-sq.-ft. space features open-air pavilions, chandeliers and fountains that further enhance vignettes of RH Outdoor collections.
RH Toronto marks Friedman’s ongoing collaboration with design architect James Gillam of Backen, Gillam & Kroeger.
The luxe home furnishings brand opened a four-level, nearly 70,000-sq.-ft. store at Yorkdale Shopping Center. The space reflects the latest iteration of RH's design gallery format and its continued foray into the hospitality sector. It features a full-service restaurant and also a cafe.
“The vision for our new design galleries has been to blur the lines between residential and retail, and create spaces that are more home than store," said RH chairman and CEO Gary Friedman. "The next logical step was to further blur the lines between home and hospitality, with an integrated restaurant, wine and coffee bar."
Friedman said that the new RH location goes far beyond attaching a restaurant onto a store, noting "that’s been done before."
"What’s unique, is we’ve created a completely integrated hospitality experience, led by famed Chicago restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff, that reflects our taste, style and point of view," he said. (Sodikoff is the founder, CEO and creative director of Hogsalt Hospitality, a rapidly growing Chicago-based restaurant group.)
Conceptualized as a grand-scale contemporary structure filled with fresh air and natural light, RH Toronto features glass-and-steel French doors that open onto a streetscape accented with Boston ivy, geometric topiaries and more. The store's eastern entrance within Yorkdale features a terraced façade of Venetian plaster and a lush interior courtyard flanked by open-air loggias serving as the central location for the restaurant, the Courtyard Café. Patrons sit beneath olive trees and a 140-ft.-wide skylight that floods the space with natural light.
The RH Barista Bar is located in the central hall, which features 14-ft. ceilings. The coffee cafe is defined by a Tuscan colonnade and facet-edged limestone slabs.
The store is marked by artistic installations of home furnishings in a gallery setting, with entire floors dedicated to RH Interiors, RH Modern and RH Outdoor. It also includes an interactive "design atelier," offering professional interior design services in a studio environment. A conservatory and park are located on the roof. The 12,000-sq.-ft. space features open-air pavilions, chandeliers and fountains that further enhance vignettes of RH Outdoor collections.
RH Toronto marks Friedman’s ongoing collaboration with design architect James Gillam of Backen, Gillam & Kroeger.