Tamarind Tribeca
99 Hudson Street
Tel: 212-775-9000
Designer: Wid Chapman Architects

Occupying the corner space of an art deco building in Tribeca, the high-end Indian restaurant Tamarind takes a firmly contemporary approach based on the client’s wish for simple but elegant decor. “We wanted to get away from the kitsch and traditions that you would associate with an Indian restaurant,” said principal Wid Chapman. Instead, he sought to create a “sense of townscape” that would foster a communal feeling within the L-shaped, 7,000-square-foot space. Along the Hudson Street frontage, a long onyx bar glows from within to engage the street. A few steps up, the main dining room features limestone-clad columns, Brazilian teak flooring, and a windowed Tandoor kitchen shaped like a chimney. A series of intimate booths are tucked under a glass-lined mezzanine, reached by a cantilevered stair, while teak banquettes offer semi-private spaces along Franklin Street. Suspended from the 16-foot-high ceilings are custom silk lampshades that trail strings of amber beads. The restaurant’s lighting, including yellow LED fixtures recessed in the ceiling along with vertical bands along one wall, was conceived in collaboration with the late lighting designer Alejandro Bulaevsky.