Rising Restaurants: Crews tackle unique dining spaces needs
At a century-old building in the heart of Catonsville, construction crews are working on a project that is complex, demanding and historic.
Founded in 1886 and located at Lexington Market ever since, Faidley Seafood is preparing to set up operations in this new Frederick Road location.
In Catonsville, DACG Commercial is creating a new restaurant for the century-old Faidley Seafood company. Image courtesy of Karlik Design and DACG Commercial.
Even by restaurant standards, it’s a complex project.
The basement is being outfitted to support a major component of Faidley’s business: mail order shipments of its famous crab cakes. The first floor of the former wallpaper store is being transformed into a full-service seafood restaurant, the second into a banquet hall and crews are installing multiple kitchens throughout the building to support those distinct operations.
“This is a huge investment for the Faidley family,” said Taylor Classen, Chief Operating Officer and Partner at DACG Commercial. “They have been in business for nearly 145 years. They want to preserve the family business and help it thrive into the next generation. They see this project as key to that.”
Restaurant projects can demand a lot of designers and builders. In addition to meeting construction schedules and budgets, project teams must craft and execute unique designs, install robustly functional systems, craft welcoming aesthetics, and complete some daunting transformations in order to advance a national brand, meet a chef’s dream or sustain a family legacy.
Challenging sites
With construction happening on three levels of the Frederick Road building, the Faidley’s project has challenged crews to deal with complexities.
From inviting raw bars to expansive, pristine open kitchens, each restaurant project requires unique results. Image courtesy of Harvey Construction.
“There is different activity happening on each level and we have multiple lifts operating, so it is requiring a lot of coordination,” Classen said.
One surprising discovery made the work even harder.
“Seven months into the project, we discovered that the beautiful limestone front façade had become structurally unsound,” he said. “Now we are removing the whole front façade, supporting the floor system and putting in a new structural support system.
Then we will rebuild the front of the building and, as close as possible, create the same charm and character it had.”
At the Center Club in downtown Baltimore, Harvey Construction navigated a different array of challenges as it worked to complete a gut renovation of a kitchen and dining area. The kitchen was located on the 15th floor of a 35-story high rise.
At Adams on Fourth, Harvey Construction built an airy dining space and navigated a space constraint in the kitchen. Photo courtesy of Harvey Construction.
The building had just one freight elevator “and there were contractors working on pretty much every floor,” said Mac Ford, Project Manager at Harvey Construction.
To keep work progressing efficiently, Harvey had to coordinate with contractors leading other projects, and bring its own crews in at 5 am. It also had to push to complete the project on a tight timeline so that the club could get back to full operations and normal revenues.
“There were days when we had 30 contractors in that space, all working on top of each other,” Ford said.
For the Adams on Fourth restaurant in Annapolis, Harvey Construction had barely a year to complete ground-up construction of the building, which would also include two apartments.
High water table in the area created challenges for grading and site work.
“But probably the biggest challenge involved the kitchen hoods,” Ford said. “We had about 12 inches of joist depth in the kitchen so the big challenge was meeting fire rating and fire mitigation with the hoods.”
The project team spent months puzzling through that one element of the project until the team, a third party inspector and city officials agreed on an acceptable hood installation.
Fine dining environments
The results of challenging restaurant projects, however, can be stunning.
The remodeled Center Club featured a lot of high-end finishes in its millwork, tile work, countertops, glass and elsewhere.
“There are millwork ceilings, millwork cabinetry and millwork throughout an entire long, long corridor that’s 80 to 100 feet long,” he said.
A gut renovation of the dining and bar space at the Baltimore Yacht Club delivered similarly impressive results. Designed around a nautical theme, the project included a lot of teak and Ipe wood, v-groove shiplap walls, a very large bar made from stained white oak, and white quartz countertops.
A key element of the design, however, was a less noticeable feature.
“In a lot of the restaurants that we have worked on recently, there has been a huge emphasis on acoustical treatments,” Ford said. “Restaurant owners are very concerned about noise resonance. We have all been to restaurants where it is difficult to hear people talk even when they are sitting next to you. That can convince people not to come back to a restaurant.”
Consequently, Harvey Construction “worked hand-in-hand with the owners and the architect to find acoustical products that would work with the design and not be too costly,” he said.
Close collaborations
The ability to do value engineering, assist with design and engage in heightened collaboration is vital to many restaurant projects.
“Every single restaurant owner has their own flair, their own vision. But many times, owners either don’t have architects involved in their projects or they have architects involved to a limited degree,” Ford said. “In our restaurant projects, 20 percent to 30 percent of them are design-builds.”
Many others require significant input from the builder on how to execute and refine the design in order to match the project’s vision, budget and schedule, he said. “And every single restaurant owner that we’ve ever worked with has always asked to make some design changes in the middle of the project.”
And it’s not just bespoke restaurant projects that require that close collaboration. Construction of chain restaurants have similar needs.
Although the designs of national restaurant chains like CAVA and Raising Cane’s are more prescribed, clients still expect inviting, comfortable spaces. Photo courtesy of Petrie Construction.
Petrie Construction is currently involved in several projects for Raising Cane’s and CAVA.
“Both of those companies are in the throes of nationwide initiatives to develop more sites,” said Adam Petrie, Chief Executive Officer.
Although the designs of those restaurants are more prescribed, details can change from location to location. Raising Cane’s, for example, tailors imagery in each restaurant to reflect the local community.
“You have to really understand their brand and be able to work in lockstep with their CM team, understand their requirements and understand what they are looking to accomplish with each new restaurant,” said Matt Cornelius, Senior Project Manager at Petrie.
As they move into new markets, national chains also rely on general contractors and their teams to understand and address local requirements, such as county regulations on the placement of grease traps. They also rely on GCs to assemble reliable, impressive teams of subcontractors in each new market.
“What you are seeing more in this industry is the search for relationship-oriented contractors and partners,” said Jeremy Bragg, Director of Construction Services at Petrie. “Owners are looking for a general contractor who is going to bring them value beyond any individual project. We have to become their partner, their resource and create a team that will deliver on their projects.”
Petrie Construction has utilized “The Petrie Way,” its core values, to create those relationships with national restaurant chains and to partner with subcontractors who can best execute those projects, Cornelius said.
“As we find ourselves expanding our reach across the country to build these restaurants, we are carrying some of these subcontractors into new regions,” he added.