To the epicures lucky enough to score a reservation at The French Laundry this spring: A three-Michelin-starred feast isn’t the only sensory treat that awaits you. Earlier this month, the 20-year-old restaurant in Yountville, California, put its kitchen on full display to the street. Approaching guests can glimpse the intricate choreography of chefs and servers through a 30-foot-long bay window inserted into a shipping container fronting Washington Street. Three additional containers complete the kitchen.
Designed by Berkeley-based Envelope A+D, the quartet of shipping containers is the latest phase in a more permanent transformation of chef Thomas Keller’s flagship. That project began two years ago, when the restaurateur asked Snøhetta principal Craig Dykers to design new kitchen and annex facilities for the Napa Valley restaurant, whose dining room occupies an 1890s-era laundry building.
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