75Reinventing
the restaurant
VESPERTINE,LOS ANGELESTreating visitors like locals
ILLA EXPERIENCE HOTEL,QUITO, ECUADOR
An oasis for the arts
TIPPET RISE ART CENTER,
STILLWATER COUNTY, MONTANA
Just over 150 miles from
Yellowstone National Park, near
Montana’s Beartooth Mountains,
lies Tippet Rise. The 10,000-
acre working sheep and cattle ranch is
both thrumming with art—site-speciic
sculptures, a concert hall, an open-air
performance venue—and humbling in
the wide-open vistas and vastness of the
landscape and sky. “It’s been our lifelong
dream,” says Cathy Halstead, a painter, who
opened Tippet Rise in 2016 with her pianist
and poet husband Peter. “Our experiences
as artists compelled us to create a place
where music, art and nature could be
experienced in harmony with one another.”
In May, the duo announced the commission
of a 1,900-sq.-ft. pavilion by architect
Francis Kéré that will feature a log canopy
Little, if anything, about
Vespertine follows the rules of
traditional dining. For starters,
the restaurant, which opened
in July 2017, is housed in a building that
looks like a cross between a spaceship
and a wale. Its servers speak as little as
possible, so as not to distract from the
overall experience. It has its own musical
score, which composers Jeremy Galindo
and Christopher Royal King describe as
“an aural microcosm.” And its menu is
full of bold lavor combinations, such
as scallops with salted plum, smoked
bone marrow and crystallized onion; and
endive with almond, geranium, black
lime and roe. Depending on whom you
ask, the 18-plus-course tasting menu,
which starts at $250 per person, is either
crazy good—or just plain crazy. “We’re
a weird restaurant, because we don’t fall
into a speciic category,” says founder
and chef Jordan Kahn, who refers to his
establishment as a “living organism.”
“All we have any interest in is creating a
beautiful memory for somebody.”—M.M.So perfectly preserved is the
historic city center of Quito, with its
indigenous adobe walls alongside
colonial Spanish architecture, that
it was among the irst two cities declared a
World Heritage Site in 1978. A microcosm of
that rich history can be found at the boutique
hotel Illa (“Sacred light” in Quechua), which
opened last December. The mansion dates to
the 18th century and
has been carefully
restored, with each
of the three loors
representing an era
in Ecuador’s history.
“We added our own
families’ deepest
traditions,” says
co-owner Marcel
Perkins, noting
that his wife’s
grandmother’s gift with textiles is evident in
the hand-woven rugs and embroidered linens.
The “experience” in the hotel’s name refers to
the eight activities offered to guests, including
watercolor painting with a local artist and
Ecuadorian chocolate tasting. Staffers “share
our families’ way of living so [guests] can feel as
Quiteños during their stay,” says Perkins.—K.M.
made from locally sourced lumber. “We
want it to be a communal gathering place,”
says Halstead. Whether visitors snack or
sketch, make music or small talk—well,
that’s entirely up to them.—K.R.THE SHAPE-
SHIFTER
MORPHEUS HOTEL,
MACAU
Designed by the
late Zaha Hadid,
Morpheus is the
world’s irst free-form
exoskeleton-bound
high-rise: a grid
of steel envelops
40 stories of glass
with a luidity
inspired by Chinese
jade carving. The
interior is just as
reined, with 770
rooms, a casino loor,
high-roller facilities,
a rooftop pool, a
modern-art gallery
and not one but
two Alain Ducasse
restaurants.—C.Q.STEEL TOWN
SPARK PLUG
SUPERIOR MOTORS,
BRADDOCK, PA.
Can a restaurant
reinvigorate a
struggling steel town?
That’s the idea behind
Superior Motors,
which opened last
summer in a former
car dealership after
raising a record-
setting $310,225
on Kickstarter.
Already, its modern
American food is
bringing recognition
to Braddock, and it
says it will teach its
workers—many of
whom are locals who
lost manufacturing
jobs—new skills.
“Eventually, we want
to launch a full-on
culinary school,” says
chef and founder Kevin
Sousa, a Pittsburgh
native.—Alejandro de
la Garza