Bare brick internal walls are washed in a patchy layer of white paint and covered from ceiling-to-floor with animal skulls, fragments of bone, anatomical drawings and white cooking utensils. «On the exterior, a clean artisanal, handmade ceramic tile covering with a graphic approach protects the inside skin layer, which becomes more organic and full of texture.»
A single bone suspended on a chain above the entrance gives visitors a hint of what lies within. Photography is by Jaime Navarro. Steam-bent wooden cafe chairs line the edges of one long wooden table that steps with the tiered floor-level of the restaurant. White rods with small bulbs at their tips rise through holes in the table like umbrella stands and at one end of the space a dead tree trunk is planted in a patch of earth. «Inspired in a Darwinian vision, the inside skin covers almost every vertical square inch of the interior with over 10,000 collected bones,» said the team. «The design approach begins with creating a double skin,» said the studio in a statement. In the kitchen, orders are kept in check between the broken ribs of section of skeleton cast in metal. Related story: London restaurant by Brinkworth resembles a ramshackle farm building The client for Hueso Restaurant – which translates as Bone Restaurant – was Cadena’s brother, chef Alfonso Cadena. Project credits:
Architect: Ignacio Cadena
Culinary Concept: Alfonso Cadena
Concept and Art Direction: Ignacio Cadena
Lighting and Furniture Design: Ignacio Cadena Architect of Record: Javier Monteón
Ceramics: José Noé Suro
Art Interventions: Los -Originales- Contratistas Tomás Guereña Miguel Ángel Fuentes
Graphic Design: Rocío Serna
Aluminium Cast Bones: Mauricio Sebastián Lara Branding
Experience Design: Cadena Concept Design The skeletal decor takes its cues from the restaurant menu, which includes unusual meaty offcuts like bone marrow. In a glass vitrine at the foot of a white staircase, a selection of specimens are laid out like a natural history museum display. The concrete walls of the bathroom have been partially covered with glossy white tiles and a horned animal skull is mounted above the toilet like a hunting trophy.
