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El Camino, Bloomingdale's New Restaurant, Draws from Mexico and California for Cuisine, Design
The idea behind El Camino's design sounds a little wacky on paper, but makes sense after walking into the space. Tony Lucca describes the space, designed by Edit Lab at StreetSense's Brian Miller and Lauren Winter, as what happens when an 80-year-old Mexican grandmother and a 20-something Chicano from Los Angeles share the same apartment.
"The Chicano culture is very arts focused, very music focused, and that's one thing we wanted to capture," Lucca said. "They [at Edit] took our concept and just blew it up — in a good way."
That meant touches like decorative concrete blocks, and some subtle touches that evoke the El Camino car for which the restaurant is named, including rims as table bases and crushed velvet seating. On the "grandma" side, there is a mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe painted by a local artists, and antique dishware collected for the restaurant by the owner of Something Vintage rentals. Colors are a main focus, though Lucca tried to shy away from being too over the top. "We didn't want to be forcing [the theme] down people's throats," he said. There is seating for between 40 and 50 people; a patio will come in the spring.
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