SNOOP Special: Dine & Design at Kawa Ni
In addition to being a celebrated, James Beard nominated chef, restaurateur Bill Taibe is also a design lover who admits his favorite part of his booming restaurant business now is designing his dining spaces. And it shows in this recent renovation and expansion of Kawa Ni on the Saugatuck River in Westport. Kawa Ni is based on a Japanese Izakaya, or whiskey bar, usually where small plates are paired with great drinks.
MyDesignport and Westport Lifestyle had the good fortune to partner up with CTBites editor Stephanie Webster for a tour of the newly expanded Kawa Ni, one of Webster’s favorite dining spots. Check out this video for clips from the interview and tour.
“My favorite part of what I do now is building the spaces,” admits Taibel. A treasure hunter, Taibe relishes the search for antiques, artifacts and art to “authenticate the space,” and bring his dining vision to life. His favorite sources are ebay.com, etsy.com, fujiarts.com and auction sites like 1stdibs.com and chairish.com. “More so than any other culture,” Taibe explains, “aesthetically I find it so easy to integrate old world Japan with the new.” The result is a roomier but still cozy Kawa Ni, serving up their delicious signature small plates and transporting the diner to a Japanese izakaya.
With the expansion of Kawa Ni, one of the goals was to make it feel like the new bar room had been there forever. Part of doing that was picking the perfect planks of knotty red cedar paneling, which Taibe did in collaboration with his designer, Kate Hauser. The wood is from Ring’s End The Narita tiles are from D and D Homes in Darien.
The mismatched plates are vintage, sourced from Borrowed Vintage, auctions or gifted. The Daruma dolls and “lucky cats” are also gifted, as Taibe explains, they symbolize prosperity and luck. In an American pub, an owner will tape dollar bills to the wall. At an izakaya, the currency is lucky cats. How cool is that?
Oh and when you go to Kawa Ni, don’t miss the Sake Bomb. Webster certainly did not. “Kanpai!”
