Featured Restaurant Project:
Zazios Italian Grille
Radisson
Kalamazoo, MI

Zazios is a new modern Italian style restaurant where the food is the entertainment. The restaurant is located in the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Kalamazoo. Zazios offers a unique gourmet menu created by Executive Chef John Korycki.

Zazios incorporates a dining room, demonstration kitchen, bar, a patio for outdoor dining and a retail store named Zazios Fresh. This one of a kind space was achieved by combining unique interior elements with an exciting space plan and bold furniture and finishes.

Client Objectives
The owner charged SKP Design with the task of creating a new signature restaurant, which would become a unique destination to the downtown nightlife. The client’s objectives included that the space reflect and urban atmosphere, be colorful, contemporary, dramatic and bold. The demonstration kitchen and pizza oven was to be a central interactive feature of the restaurant.

Design Program
Upon entering Zazios you feel the energy of the space as the bold colors draw you into the dining room, which accommodates approx-imately 75 guests. The open kitchen allows the sounds and smells of the exquisite Italian creations to exude into the rest of the space. The demonstration kitchen features a twelve person party booth centered on a custom cooking space where the feature chef prepares, instructs and serves a five-course meal. SKP Design commissioned local artist Lynette Baber to create a custom decorative hand painted tile mural to wrap the front of the chef’s cooking island. Closed Circuit TV Monitors located throughout Zazios allow other guests to enjoy the demonstration as well.

The lighting throughout the space was designed and specified by internationally renowned lighting designer, Gary Steffy. The cutting edge LED Lighting, which changes scenes every ten minutes, moves you through the space leading you into the bar, where a modern steel and glass sculpture is displayed. SKP Design commissioned the piece by local artists Michelle Zorich and Judy Konesni. Michelle Zorich of Things of Steel also created the signage for Zazios and Zazios Fresh.

Traveling further into the space you enter Zazios Fresh, a unique wine and cheese shop that stocks chilled wine and champagne as well as fixings for appetizers for the hotel guests or local patrons stopping through on their way home from work.
 
Another unique feature is the patio that seats 35 guests, which overlooks the downtown-walking mall. The Ring of Fire creates an elegant atmosphere by combining the glow of firelight and the sounds of fountain water.

Specifications
The total space is approximately 7,400 square feet.
The remodel was completed Fall 2004.

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