Chef and cofounder of Korean eatery Baroo, Kwang Uh bucks expectations that his cuisine must be traditional. For his reopened restaurant, Uh and his cofounder, Mina Park, entrusted Los Angeles–based firm Only Way Is Up (OWIU) with turning the industrial space into a warm interior, sensitive to tradition yet not pandering to Asian tropes. The architects employed walnut wood to evoke a hanok, or traditional Korean residential architecture, while a combination of Venetian and Shikkui plaster counteract the coldness of preexisting concrete walls.

An aperture with a live edge provides a window into the kitchen and keeps things light and open. Tables from the previous owners were saved and resurfaced in a walnut tone to accommodate a limited budget, but OWIU spared no detail: The designers created custom ceramics for the space, including the decorative moon platter often seen in traditional Korean homes, made through the firm’s sister ceramics branch.

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