Total Food Service sat down with Goldman Design Group’s Jennifer Geddes to talk about her role with JC Furniture on the new Empire City Casino expansion.
What was Empire City’s vision for a table and seating plan and how did you transform their ideas from conception to completion?
We worked very closely with Marc to create a functional yet colorful seating plan. The goal was to combine a casual mixture of furniture to create an interesting outdoor/ indoor street theme. The furniture also had to be able to take a lot of abuse as well as be accessible for many older clientele.
Were any custom pieces, like banquettes specified?
We customized the banquette and some of the small wooden tables.
The Big Kitchen is quite large, what were some of the seating strategies and challenges with working with such a large space?
Since the Big Kitchen was so large we made many different seating areas using a variety of chairs and tables as well as counter stools. We mixed the colors and styles to give the room an overall fun look.
JC Furniture worked with you on supplying the furniture. What’s it like working with them and how did they meet your needs to provide you with the looks you needed?
We have worked with JC for many years. We always find them to be helpful in understanding our ideas. They made a number of sample pieces of furniture so that the owners could sit on them and then know what they would be ordering which is very helpful.
Empire City wanted an exciting street theme. The key was to have the large street lamps and walkway make you feel that the outside was combined with the inside. The redesign of the Big Kitchen was way over due and they wanted something fun, colorful, unique yet functional. We created an environment that will appeal to a wide range of clientele. We wanted the space to be exciting and added a small coffee area as well as a funky yogurt area.
The casino is very happy with our transformation and felt it was better then they could have expected. We are now designing a second project for the casino called the Little Kitchen. It is more of a fast food take out area with a large seating area that overlooks the casino. We are using many new innovative products with a small open kitchen. The overall theme is very colorful, fun and unique.
We have a number of upcoming projects that we are working on that include a Meatball restaurant, an Italian Restaurant, Irish Pub and a Mediterranean Restaurant. We will be working with JC on all of these. At Goldman Design Group we make each project unique and we have a constant and wide new client base because of our creativity.
