TAO Downtown
Restaurant
What if you could dine on the steps of a deity’s temple?
Dragon scales and calligraphy mark the beginning of an exotic journey just a few steps below Manhattan’s busy streets. TAO Downtown is a two-story, 22,000-square-foot restaurant, bar and lounge in the former ballroom spaces of New York’s Maritime Hotel.
- Client
- TAO Group Hospitality
- Project Category
Expanding from an intimate corridor into a grand subterranean room, the restaurant’s focal point is a striking grand staircase that creates a see-and-be-seen atmosphere.
Guests don’t go straight to their tables. They move through a series of levels that invite lingering with daybeds and lounges.
“We looked at how stairs add drama to the audience’s arrival at a performance venue.”
Scale becomes part of the spectacle.
Oversized lanterns and statues echo the impressive size of the Asian-inspired Gotham speakeasy. The arms of a 20-foot-tall statue appear to move hypnotically beneath a veil of projected animation designed by Rockwell Group’s LAB.
“We've created a restaurant that is less about planting yourself at a table, and more about getting up, moving around.”
