SARTORIA LAMBERTI || Trattoria Nestled in Ritz Carlton Moscow Combines The Finest Italian Fashion and Cuisine
Italian fashion and cuisine in the nook of a hotel in Moscow, Russia: the emblem of two cultures fusing to architect a restaurant that feeds one’s belly with hearty meals and satisfies one’s eyes with fashionable aesthetics.
The gastronomy of Sartoria Lamberti restaurant captures the essence of a fashion museum and a tailor shop in a new-age dining experience. The Italian restaurant in Ritz Carlton Hotel in Moscow enamours the patrons with the opulent designs by Yuna Megre of Megre Interiors, the sound of light conversation over the bustling of pots and pans in the kitchen, the feel and mood of luxury among the custom-made placemats and curated cushions, and the smell and taste of savoury Italian cuisine by chef and restaurateur Uilliam Lamberti.
Custom furnishings align with the tailor shop theme
Megre took on creating a distinctive spatial concept of a gastronomic parlour, embodying Italian appreciation for beauty and quality while exuding a sense of luxury and simplicity. In an exclusive interview with Pendulum Magazine, Megre shares: “The idea for the concept came to restaurateur Uilliam Lamberti during a visit to his family in Italy, where they were discussing the love for Italian food, fashion, and living a beautiful life filled with passion. We were already knee-deep into a different concept for this space with him, but immersing himself in this new idea that brings these Italian nuances together ignited him so much that he scrapped the original concept we had dreamed up. Uilliam brought his dear friend, and an expert of Italian fashion, Alex Alekminsky, into the project, and together they iterated the idea to me. I fell in love with the new concept instantly, and my imagination ran wild. My goal was not to create a space that has a couple of display boxes for museum-level fashion pieces as a nod to the theme, but to make everything in sight live and breathe: the merging of culinary and fashion worlds to pay homage to Italian craftsmanship and generational expertise.”
Entrance to the restaurant
There are three pathways to reach the entrance of the restaurant. Since Sartoria Lamberti is located inside a hotel, the Megre Interiors designers followed the interior palettes of the dwelling to create a transition between the contrasting atmosphere of the restaurant and the hotel. The trattoria’s ebony panels and dividers, along with gold fixtures and letterings, synchronize with the design of the hotel’s motif.
The second entrance is located outside by the street, where patrons pass by the host counter housing a vintage sewing machine and through a mirror-clad corridor before opening up to the heart of the restaurant. This design solution enables them to enter the restaurant without passing through the hotel lobby.
The third entrance leads to the restaurant from the hotel’s lobby bar, which acts as the spillover space for busy Friday nights.
The restaurant houses its own sartoria
The interior design demonstrates a strong sense of interconnectedness. Each distinct area combines to form a seamless fit like parts of a perfectly tailored suit. The blueprint had a long, narrow space with only two windows at the end, one of the challenges resolved by the Megre Interiors team. Lamberti intended to stretch the open kitchen along the length of the restaurant, but Yuna proposed an island design that would manifest functional zones to allow for a spacious working kitchen that elicits gasps of wonder upon the patrons’ entrance.
Thus, the space is divided into three equal parts: the open kitchen, the adjacent seating area, and the grand space by the windows, separate from the rest of the restaurant by heavy velvet curtains, which also serve the purpose of soundproofing for private functions.
Dining area separated by heavy velvet curtains
Megre believes in the dynamism of space and its ever-changing points of perception and composition. She designs a journey that traverses the relationship between the patrons, the spaces, and the experiences, an echo of Lamberti’s philosophy and concept for the restaurant.
First, the sartoria acts as a unique element at the heart of the concept, followed by the sizzling open kitchen stressing the importance of the gastronomic aspect before arriving at the seating areas to satisfy any preference and mood.
Chefs busily preparing food in the kitchen
Impressive bar housing a curated wine collection
The interior itself becomes the storyteller, guiding the guests' attention to the elements of design. The gold portal pays homage to fashion boutiques by sharing a glimpse of the restaurant's sartoria and open kitchen, which overflows with a display of seafood, spluttering stoves, and massive ovens.
The bar features four-meter-high wine cabinets housing an impressive wine collection. The seating area near the kitchen hosts cozy banquettes running along the side of the room, where copper lacquered round tables are complete with cuff-inspired chairs. Separated by heavy drapery, the backroom flaunts a grand space with an eight-meter marble table stretching along the center of the room, which is crowned with a bespoke mirrored screen fireplace designed as a dressing room.
Back dining room separated by heavy drapery
“Most of the items in the restaurant are custom made - furniture, joinery, lighting, and finishes. The guests’ eyes constantly wander from the massive cabinets with real tailor cut-outs to the railings-inspired lighting and the open kitchen influenced by drafting tables. They will also notice the thimble-formed columns, fabric-inspired banquettes, table edges with meter marks of tailors’ rulers, the needle eye cutlery, and tiny irons holding the napkins, to name a few. Executive chef Sergey Andreichenko interprets the Italian classic cuisine such as pasta and risotto. If that is not unique enough, the restaurant has its own real sartoria, where a tailor makes monogrammed handkerchiefs from the finest cotton for each guest, a lasting memory to take home,” Megre tells Pendulum Magazine.
Tailor making monogrammed handkerchief for guests to take home
Sartoria Lamberti states quality, passion, authenticity, elegance, respect for traditions, and unparalleled attention to detail for the love of food and fashion, the Italian way. The sartoria lies in the heart of the restaurant - a glass enclosure with sewing machines, mannequins, and fabrics that forms part of the essence of the dining experience.
The left wall of the trattoria has a massive stained-oak cabinet that contains rows of real tailor patterns where famous Hollywood fashion costumes on loan from the archives of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion are on display, such as Pierce Brosnan’s Brioni Tuxedo from Die Another Day and Ava Gardner’s dress from the Barefoot Contessa.
Seating is backed by awe-inspiring clothing displays
The open kitchen comprises the sewing desks, upon which chefs tailor every dish acting as dressmakers. The seating area boasts Tailor sofas stacked with fabric. The brass columns were inspired by the tailor's thimbles, adorning the name of the restaurant. Shirt cuffs and rolls of thread inspired the bocci chandeliers.
The cutlery, designed by Yuna Megre, bears the eye of a needle and patterns with the placemats that take after jeans fabric sewn in white threads. With white candle wax overflowing onto the floor, the fireplace was designed resembling a tri-fold dressing room mirror. The Railings lighting on the ceiling, covered in gold and doubling as the pipes, resembles clothes rails and designed by Yuna Megre, especially for this project, sews the whole space into the restaurant’s fabric.
Railings lighting resembling clothes rails
As the chefs work in a seamless flow in the open kitchen, the wine glasses clink in the seating area, the railing-inspired lighting tones down to set the mood, and the sewing machine runs to emboss a guest’s name on the handkerchief, the atmosphere inside Sartoria Lamberti becomes charged with sophistication, a tinge of dulcet and flavorful aroma hovering in the air. In such a dining experience, the refined taste for Italian culture and cuisine has arrived.
PROJECT DETAILS
Location: RITZ CARLTON Moscow Hotel,
Tverskaya St, 3, Moscow, 125009
Area: 295 sqm
Opened: December 2019
Client: LIGAREST LLC
Designed by: MEGRE INTERIORS
Photography: Mikhail Loskutov
Matthew Burgos doesn’t talk to people. He interviews them and writes their story, carpeting the narratives with poetry. He’s an aspiring journalist, an indie-folk playlist devourer, a self-proclaimed maverick, and a die-hard, 90% dark chocolate glutton.
