La Boîte

An Escapist French Dining Experience

A disco/apothecary-inspired French concept restaurant with research stemming from an old world and new world themes that inform the design. 

Inspired by a traditional French apothecary, La Boîte is a COVID-safe concept restaurant that offers a dose of escapism for the insomniacs, late night crowd, and all-nighters in the form of French food and culture. The restaurant consists of unique pods or “pillboxes,” which is from where the name La Boite (meaning the box) originates. The idea is that you and up to three others can dine in a private space and curate your experience by choosing regional menu items each with video projections to match. The restaurant’s “pharmacists,” hosts/servers, will assist as you journey from the mixology discolounge, where our drink DJs will mix you a libation, to your secluded space.

The goal for this project was to find balance between two disparate worlds, my contrasting themes of apothecary and discotheque, in one harmonious system. Finding a way to inform each piece of my design from my research was the hardest part. I had to find a sweet spot for the concepts to mesh together in order to start pulling references from my source material.

I used a scanner, Photoshop, and Illustrator for my image-making process. Working with faded gradients and grid lines, I wanted to mimic the discotheque feel and pair them with the more floral, Art Deco and apothecary label-inspired typography.