A museum is all about curation. It now seems that a museum restaurant should also be curated, at least according to chef Corey Lee, who had an inspired concept for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s new flagship eatery. At In Situ, every dish is from the menu of a top culinary outpost elsewhere. For instance, the restaurant’s changing menu might include Wylie Dufresne’s shrimp grits from New York’s wd~50 and a dessert of wood sorrel and sheep-milk yogurt by René Redzepi from Copenhagen’s Noma. Given the eclectic origins of the offerings, the backdrop could have defaulted to a gallery-like sterility. But local firm Aidlin Darling Design created a space that is very much in situ, with subtle details that delight the visual palate.

SFMOMA recently unveiled a major addition and renovation by Snøhetta, which located the 6,300-square-foot restaurant in former café and event spaces off the lobby of the original 1995 Mario Botta building. The dark-toned room smoothly segues from the museum’s entry, which has a black and gray granite floor. According to chef Lee, “I didn’t want the space to feel like a typical restaurant, but an extension of the museum where food happened to be served.”