Distrito, Jose Garces’s newest restaurant, opens at 40th and Chestnut on Monday. Just as Garces and designer Jun Aizaki of Brooklyn-based Crème traveled to Spain to gather inspiration for Tinto, their jaunts to Mexico City inform the menu and design of 250-seat Distrito. Apparently Mexico City is very PINK.
The first floor is lounge-y and filled with rattan benches that were custom-made in Thailand, and with squat, plastic chairs that have spangly electric-pink seats (think Jellies). The pink and purple postcards on the wall are for the taking.
And we’ve been hearing about this for a while–the Volkswagen Beetle taxicab (apparently these are common in Mexico City) is ensconced in its own nook on the first floor. It’ll be used as a table.
And, ta-da!!! Behind this trick door is a cozy, purple karaoke room that seats 15-20. Is there anything Philadelphia needs more than another karaoke room? This one is SWANK. (Okay, we could use more boutique hotels. And, uh, better schools.)
Scorpions will be encased, Hans Solo-like, in the bar, and uplit from below. I’m curious to see the final effect, but for now here’s a scorpion panel being readied for installation:
Six-hundred-and-fifty Mexican wrestling masks line the wall that leads up to the second floor. (These are not for the taking.) The collection reminds me of the Day of the Dead figurine wall at El Vez, where Garces got his start. Around the corner on the second floor is a vending machine that dispenses Mexican action figures.
The kitchen upstairs:
A bank of tables on the second floor overlooks scenic Chestnut Street. The benches’ seats slide frontward and backward. The theme of the 2nd-floor seating seems to be "movement," as there’s also a bank of enormous, semi-circular rattan booths on wheels. (The people in the background are servers-in-training. Training looks intense!)
More candy colors in the tables in the upstairs lounge:
Fun, and much different in flavor than Tinto or Amada. Distrito, in Philly context, feels like a hybrid of Pod and El Vez. It’s in the Playground Restaurant genre. I can’t wait to try the food.
[...] Collective has designed all of Jose Garces’s Philadelphia restaurants (see past tours of Distrito and Tinto). That’s saying a lot since Garces, at last count, is up to seven restaurants plus [...]
[...] Collective has designed all of Jose Garces’s Philadelphia restaurants (see past tours of Distrito and Tinto). That’s saying a lot since Garces, at last count, is up to seven restaurants plus [...]