Humblefish

The first independent venture for a young restauranteur, Humblefish in NYC’s Tribeca neighborhood combines the casualness of 1970’s California Big Sur with a modern East Coast metropolitan experience. The restaurant puts a new spin on a traditional Hawaiian cuisine with its versions of Poke (pronounced poh-kay), the rice and fish bowl sensation. Following the food’s philosophy of freshness and cleanliness, our design takes every opportunity to make a light and airy environment by introducing a large skylight into the roof of the rare single-story building and integrating vegetation into the custom furnishings. Of equal importance are the colors, craft, and other nods to the food’s Pacific influences.

Humblefish breaks from the typical fast-casual model by forgoing a serve line in favor of a fixed menu and a single point of sale. To mitigate the customer’s wait, we created an irregularly shaped “raft”, a portable seating unit that floats on a pond of reclaimed hardwood flooring. A variety of group and individual seating arrangements wrap the perimeter of the space to accommodate the diverse demographic of the typical New York City lunch crowd. Driven by strict budget constraints we creatively employed many materials purchased from standard homeware vendors. With these limitations, AO brought a unpretentious palette and bright sensibility to compliment the qualities of the product and place.