Restaurant space design and place-based storytelling: a new vocabulary for understanding ‘Sense of place' in fine dining space design

This paper investigates the relation between spatial design and place-based storytelling in Michelin-starred restaurants. The aesthetics of fine-dining restaurant spaces are undergoing significant transformations. Around the world, the traditional ideal of the French cuisine and classic French restaurant design are challenged and often replaced by space designs emphasizing local terroir and identity or by more experimental and cosmopolitan space designs. The empirical setting of this research is Copenhagen, the epicenter of the locavore new Nordic movement. Based on our theoretical framework and four case-studies from this context, we propose a new vocabulary for understanding spatial placeness in restaurants with two key conceptual axes: homogeneousness vs. heterogeneousness and solemnity vs. playfulness. We argue that this vocabulary opens new avenues for theorizing how place-based storytelling is used in contemporary restaurant design.