Great Food/Great Design: Thomas Keller/Adam Tihany

I read a great restaurant review in the Los Angeles Times yesterday by critic S. Irene Verbila, which you can read in its entirety here.  She starts of the article with "Ladies who lunch: On your marks:  Bouchon Beverly Hills...…"

The review is quite good and she goes on to lavish praise on Thomas Keller.  Having eaten at the French Laundry in Napa and Bouchon in Las Vegas, I would agree that he is one of the best restauranteurs we have in the United States.

What makes his restaurants so special is in addition to superbly plated and presented food, are the venues themselves; always a perfect compliment to his total vision

The French Laundry in Yountville in the Napa Valley epitomizes that vision.  The restaurant

 invites you in with the wonderful gardens and gravel pathways from the moment you arrive.  You can read more about The French Laundry here.  He spends a lot of time reflecting on his philosophy about the total experience of a great meal and his goals as a chef.

All of his restaurants were designed with the help of Adam Tihany.  Mr Tihany is well know for his work in the hospitality industry  He has a remarkable way with his use of lighting and understated colors.  I think one of the goals is to make the customer look really good, sipping champagne at the bar...how nice!  The sleek metal  bar at Bouchon Beverly Hills is no exception.

Bouchon Bistro Las Vegas

What is interesting about restaurant design and more specifically restaurant kitchen design is that it is often the inspiration for many home kitchens and eating areas.  You would think that a restaurant would want us to feel like we are dining at home but in fact it's the other way around...when dining at home we want to feel like we are at a restaurant.

Ad Hoc, which literally means "for this purpose" is one of my favorite restaurant interiors

Thomas Keller has designed his own line of white porcelain dinner ware which can be purchased through Gumps in San Francisco and Adam Tihany has his own line of flatware for Christofle.

Per Se Restaurant New York City

The cookbook collection is really wonderful, especially The French Laundry cookbook.  Both would make a great gift.  You can also down load the daily menu's from their web site which is really fun to do.  Here is the menu from Ad Hoc for today
 I think I need to take a trip to the market, my fridge is looking a little shabby after all things Thomas Keller
Have a great day~*~kelley

Holiday Inspiration: Rogers Gardens

Even if you're feeling a bit like Scrooge this year a trip to the famous nursery and shops of Rogers Gardens in Corona Del Mar warm your heart.  This is not just any nursery...it is 7 acres of botanical beauty and at Christmas time they deck out the entire site with ornaments and gifts for all ages and interests

The interior gift shops feature these amazing Christmas trees, each with a theme

The trees are so packed with ornaments you can barely see the green.  At the base of each tree are baskets filled with the items of each theme for purchase

This year was amazing.  I didn't count the amount of trees displayed but it had to be close to 30

I especially liked this tree called Bohemian Bourgeois.  It was sitting in a bright red chinois pot atop a painted cabinet with lots of blues and golds

Nutcrackers anyone?

Throughout the shops are tables of books, boxes, cache pots, faux floral arrangements and candles.

They sell an amazing variety of orchids and interior plants.  I loved this table made from reclaimed wood with the vintage roof cupola as a center piece

More gifts and gardening supplies.  This collection of fun birdhouses was really great

The selection of forced bulbs and poinsettia was just beautiful.  They also have a floral studio where you can have them create a custom center piece in your own pot or basket.  I have an old butter churn that I am going to have them do for me, which I will share later

This is the vegetable/herb garden area.  So many fun and different things to plant this time of year!  Notice the hanging herb baskets in the background.

Succulents have also become a specialty for Rogers.  They have an annual contest for the most creative water-wise garden for local gardeners

The hanging baskets have been a signature for the last 20 years or more and they are still a favorite of mine.  This is really a great gift to give any time of year and the baskets last a very long time as well

Here is my purchase, from this trip.  The wreath is fresh eucalyptus and the little pots are paper whites.  I left feeling very inspired and what a great way to spend and hour.  If you would like more info or directions here's a link to Rogers Gardens

best to all ~*~kelley

Ojai Country House: Garden Design Elements

We have finally finished up this little project called " the yard".  It is a full acre of land and we are done with about 2/3rds of the property and have yet to touch the house (only paint) OMG!

The rear garden project was finished off with the garden room design of spilt redwood posts, a vintage gate and a cable and turnbuckle system to support our yet to be planted grapes.  They are coming from a grower in Atascadero and should arrive next month.  In the center are the apple trees.

The cable is really my idea of an invisible fence and yet it has an industrial ranch house appeal

Here is a garden element from repurposed metal items topped with an antique roof finial.  The irrigation is a micro emitter that runs through the base of the tub and up into the copper planter

This area will be the rose garden for the David Austin roses on order.  There will be a total of 40 plants surrounding this metal planter.  They will be arriving in January.

The raised stone beds were also completed (6 total) and four will be used exclusively for vegetables.  The two at the rear of the garden are for ornamental and cutting flowers.  All of the stone came from the property and we have used it extensively in the garden, plus its FREE : )

The front of the property was completed with the installation of this water feature.  It is a reinforced concrete product and can be painted or stained any color.  I worked on this for about two days trying to match the stone work, what a job that turned out to be.

The white iceberg roses will fill in and compliment the rest of the roses around the ranch fencing.  This is actually a wonderful place to sit, but it just so happens that a woodpecker has deceided to nest in the oak and the pecking and wood chips are a bit annoying!

The gravel driveway was actually the last item to be finished last week because we were still moving around dirt and planting.  But it is finally done and we love it.  It is also really clean and the dog loves to lay on the hot stones in the middle of the day.

Front gates allow us to close off the entire front from the street.  I designed these to be sort of like a traditional picket but with a bit more ranch feel since they are 20 feet wide.

The rear yard has a big patch of grass.  Not the most water wise but this will eventually become part of the house when we remodel and add an outdoor kitchen/pavilion area

The croquet set is ready and waiting!  The decomposed granite paths are really nice and a great gardening surface as well.

All of the bases of the  oaks are lined with smaller stones to keep the roots unexposed.  This happens to also be an "Ojai" look that you will see all over the valley

The arroyo is dry now but is ready to handle any welcome rain this winter

All cool season vegetables are in and sprouting up pretty quickly.  These beds are irrigated with micro emitters and the water use is very small.

The tuteurs are planted with both edible and cutting sweet peas.  Surrounding the bases, I planted about 100 tulips per bed (Mrs Sheepers and Perestroika)

So thats the end of the project, at least for today!

Looking forward to sitting in the chairs this next weekend....it's about time

best to all~*~  kelley