Carbone has a Glamorous New Outpost Designed by Ken Fulk

I've sorely missed bars,” muses AD100 designer Ken Fulk. “I love the ritual of a cocktail getting made, the old-fashioned nature of taking time to prepare and savor something. And more than anything I miss the connectivity, seeing a friend or making a new one in an atmosphere full of charge.” Spark is precisely what this maestro of mood has just brought to Miami Beach, where he recently debuted the latest outpost of Carbone restaurant. To transform the space—set on that quintessential southernmost stretch of Collins Avenue—Fulk updated its bones with a wave of his sybaritic wand. All the columns were reimagined in antiqued-mirror panels, all the beams painted in malachite motif. Some 400 yards of custom-made Christopher Hyland velvet damask now drape the walls, cocooning the dining room, to which Fulk added Murano-glass chandeliers and an enormous Venetian mirror. At the restaurant’s heart is a seductive bar, with two types of antiqued mirror, vintage Venini sconces, and bespoke stools in another dreamy damask.

Custom-designed fluted-brass table lamps, each with an etched-glass globe, twinkle on the counter as well as among the restaurant’s deep banquettes (elegant holdovers from the space’s previous Roman and Williams design). At night, the effect dazzles. “The DNA of Carbone is midcentury Italian-American culture, and the optimism that came out of the time,” says Fulk. “We are having a moment of that again as we wake from this slumber and relish the things that we took for granted.” As for that cocktail, he notes, “It’s Miami! Go for the banana daiquiri.” carbonemiami.com —SAM COCHRAN

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest