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New Restaurant: Telepan
Telepan Restaurant, 72 W 69th St New York, NY 10023
New York Restaurant Insider met with Bill Telepan, chef/owner of Telepan Restaurant which opened this past December, and Larry Bogdanow, whose firm Bogdanow Partners Architects designed the restaurant, to discuss the design and concept of the new space.
Materials
Larry: We tried to use natural materials as much as we could. This is all
ash on the floors, the wood tables are pecan, a nice domestic hardwood. The
stone on the fireplace is called Crazy Horse from a place called Stone Source.
It’s sandstone, and every piece of it is different. There were six
fireplaces in Santa Fe, and we’ve preserved four of them. The fireplace
burners are not in yet, but they will be from a Jade range. It will be a
long stainless steel pipe with lots of little flames on it, but they’re
using candles for now.
The Space
Bill: This gave us the seating capacity we were looking for, in an area that
was pretty much untapped, considering the kind of people that live up here.
It’s like a small city on the upper west side, and there are very few
good restaurants here. I wanted something intimate, and comfortable. We have
seating for 100 here, and 10 at the bar; it’s just the size I wanted.
Larry: It was an existing restaurant called Santa Fe, it was not in
great shape but it had the bones of a restaurant. It is a weird space, being
two long narrow spaces, and for me that is a real challenge. What we ended
up doing is making a pretty good sized restaurant not feel like a huge box.
The Layout
Bill: We always looked at it as 4 spots; the bar, the west wing, and
then the two main spots on the east side. Without making the west side “Siberia”,
the challenge to Larry was how to make it so that people would want to go
over there. Instead of taking people directly from the bar to the space on
the west side, we take them through this part of the dining room, and then
pass the wine room, so they get to see the wine room, which is a showpiece
of the restaurant. People love that.
Larry: The west side is actually a very comfortable scale for a dining
room. I have found that the more variety of spaces you have in a restaurant,
the better. Some people are naturally drawn to one area and you think it’s
not the best table, but some people want that table. Some people want to
see and be seen, some people want to hide in the corner, some people want
a booth and some people want to sit on a banquette.
The Location
Bill: The thing that I find that was different ten years ago when I had Ansonia
to now is that there’s a lot more people up here my age who have young
children, and when they go out they have to get a babysitter. They’re
sophisticated enough that they want to go out to good a restaurant, but they
don’t want to travel the extra hour in a cab going downtown. Cab fares
are high, and then you tack on an extra hour for your babysitter. I live
in this area so my wife and I go through the same thing. Unless my wife’s
working, she works in midtown, I’ll go there and meet her there....but
well, not for the next year or so!
Mr. Bogdanow’s contact information:
Bogdanow Partners Architects, PC
305 Broadway, Suite 607
New York, NY 10007
212-966-0313
