Tuscan Table
Location: South Portland, Maine
Lead Project Architect: Nicola Manganello
Featured Fixture: Kōura
N. American Distributor: wakaNINE
Photographer: Kari Herer
Restaurant: Tuscan Table
Tuscan Table
Tuscan Table is the latest venture in a trio of restaurants including Tuscan Bistro in Freeport and Royal River Grill House in Yarmouth. Each restaurant’s distinctive interior design was created by Nicola’s Home. Well known for her extensive residential design portfolio, Nicola Manganello’s functionally elegant aesthetic is rapidly gaining popularity in commercial spaces throughout southern Maine.
Each choice Nicola makes for a space is driven by a desire to create warmth and comfort. Tuscan Table is modern and inviting, anchored by an imposing marble bar. Wood brings warmth. Lighting illuminates without overpowering. Seating is conducive to conversation and relaxation.
Tuscan Table serves classic, simple Italian food created from the restaurant’s two rustic wood ovens.
“The restaurant location was a little “out of the way” so the space had to be a destination that attracted patrons. The light fixtures were design elements that reinforced and helped drive the business goal of attracting customers and enticing them to keep coming back.”
– Nicola Manganello
Nicola’s Home
The Koura
The Kōura family of fixtures comprises six sizes with the smallest at 20” high and the largest a towering 8 feet tall. The variety of sizes provided options to fill space that were cohesive and yet not too repetitive. The fixtures are made from bamboo plywood and airy by design, resulting in lightweight fixtures that did not require ceiling reinforcement or specialized hardware. Fixtures of different sizes were positioned together and hung at different heights to further enable variety and fill the cavernous space.
The Kōuras are not the only wooden fixtures featured in the restaurant as pieces by LZF and Bover are also installed in the space.
The Seed System
Kōura is part of the Seed System family. Seed System is a design philosophy we developed that minimizes the effects of shipping on the environment. This means thinking with this in mind right from design conception through to production, packaging and the consumer experience. On average every Seed System kitset is 1/30th of the size of a fully assembled light. The light is easy to construct by following printed instructions included with the kitset and an online video.
All David Trubridge seed system fixtures ship as a compact set of components from New Zealand. The fixtures for Tuscan Grill were semiassembled in Austin, Texas and then crated and shipped to the restaurant site. Prior to installation, the team spent 5-10 minutes per fixture to complete the assembly.
If the fixtures had been fully assembled in Austin and shipped, the freight volume would have been 10 times greater and the cost 3 times larger than for the semi-assembled versions!
“The Nicola’s Home team utilized the full scale of the Kōura fixtures to create a stunning installation. By shipping semi-assembled fixtures we enabled lower cost freight and reduced the impact to the environment. The end result speaks for itself – a simply alluring space you just have to spend time in.”
– John Cook
wakaNINE, CEO
In The Space
Fixtures Utilized: 16 Kōuras
Sizes Utilized: 4 sizes
Kōura 500 (20″h x 12″ dia.)
Kōura 750 (29″h x 17″ dia.)
Kōura 1000 (39″h x 22″dia.)
Kōura 1600 (63″h x 37″dia.)
Kōura 2000 (79″h x 43″dia.)
Kōura 2400 (94″h x 55″dia.)
Story
Kōura by David Trubridge is a droplet-like form, which mimics the curled form of native New Zealand marine species Kōura (named by the indigenous Māori people). The fixture is made from sustainable bamboo and is also inspired by the intricate traps used by early Māori to snare or store food.