Urban Village: Stephanie Goto

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 9/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

When Stephanie Goto was barely a teenager, living in Manhattan, her foodie parents were already taking her out to dinner at Felidia and Lespinasse. "Hunting for the best New York dining experience has always been part of my life," Goto says. "Today, when I find places I love, I go so often I make friends with the head of the kitchen."

Such was the case in the late 1990's, when Goto became a regular at the West Village bistro Le Zoo, where Portuguese expat George Mendes was the executive chef. Fast-forward a decade, and Mendes, opening his own restaurant in the Flatiron district, called on the Stephanie Goto Design Group.



"Let me narrate your story. Let me be your interpreter," Goto tells all her clients. With the Mendes project—called Aldea, which means village—that involved turning a 2,200-square-foot, two-story space into a visual metaphor for the Iberian landscape.

The bar, cabinetry, and tabletops are veneered in earthy white oak. A chandelier of 400 acrylic tubes represents clouds. And a feature wall painted in dreamy blues is the sea.