Time Out Market is a Collective of Miami's Culinary Stars
When travel and culture magazine Time Out unveiled the latest installment of its dining hall concept in Miami, it was immediately evident that the vibe of the sprawling, concrete and neon-hued venue would be more closely aligned with the city's high-end nightclubs than with a traditional food hall.
Since debuting the first Time Out Market in Lisbon, the magazine has worked carefully with local architects—Miami Beach-based Urban Robot, in this instance—to design each location to showcase the respective city's gastronomy and culture.
Sleek and sophisticated, the Miami outpost clusters 18 food stalls, including stalls from notable celebrity chefs, around cocktail and wine bars, ultimately drawing the biggest crush of people in the center of the hall.
Revered Miami Modern designer Morris Lapidus was a principal inspiration for the design team, and led the design efforts in selecting a building with a perforated exterior that pays homage to Lapidus' signature style.
"If it's good, it goes into the magazine; if it's great, it goes into the market," says Didier Souillat, CEO of Time Out Market Miami, explaining how it was decided which restaurateurs would receive one of the coveted spots. Among offerings from esteemed industry names like Norman Van Aken and Michael Beltran, there are local favorites such as Miami Smokers Charcuterie and Azucar Ice Cream.
The interior of the multi-concept hall was designed in a uniform aesthetic, featuring black tile walls and burnished panel signage as a "democratic" design approach, which keeps the newer players and established concepts on the same playing field.
"We really obsessed about the details—primarily to create an overall neutral canvas to showcase the food and the chefs than to call attention to the design," explains project architect Cassandra Straus of Urban Robot.
"Stainless-steel kitchens contrast with the absence of any mechanical ducts and sprinkler pipes within the space," says Straus.
The choice to conceal all the systems in each display kitchen—by hiding all pipes, outlets, fans, and other messy components typical of a cooking space—eliminates unnecessary visual pollution.
One dramatic departure from the dark-toned canvas is the pink terrazzo that was poured on-site to form the countertops on which patrons order and receive their food. The rose hue serves as a striking backdrop for each stall's offerings, and is inspired by the Art Deco buildings nearby on South Beach. Beneath the counters, recessed LED uplighting provides a dim, backlit glow.
"There is something very 'Miami' about the pink, and it feels right at home not only because of its context, but also because of that particular hue in the local sunsets," says Straus.
While each stall's kitchen is on display, the Demonstration Kitchen is the center's true exhibition-style kitchen, and is the largest cooking space in the market. Countertop seating on three sides offers views of the action in the kitchen, and a live video displays shots from above the stovetop via TV screens overhead.
The Demonstration Kitchen will also feature an ongoing program of "pop-ups" from up-and-coming chefs, who are given the opportunity to use a three-month residency to test menu items before bringing them to their own permanent space after their concept departs the Market.
In addition to the counters at the demo kitchen, all of the public seating in Time Out is communal in order to encourage interaction among visitors. Long rectangular wooden tables coupled with the exposed concrete floor, glass walls, and minimalist lighting design by London-based Isometrix add up to an industrial-chic aesthetic that's softened in the daytime by natural Miami sunlight.
The majority of the design materials were handcrafted, including chalkboard menus hand-lettered by Chalk & Brush, and the black tiles handmade by Italian manufacturer Domenico Mori.
Signage also thoughtfully punctuates the space, sporting a font and style that's consistent with the Time Out magazine logo, though not identical.
To further integrate Time Out magazine into the space, "media wall" screens at the end of the hall display content from the current issue—including the city's top attractions—and are interspersed with original digital artwork from the publisher's "Animated Cities" series. The Instagram-friendly installation draws crowds of visitors posing for photos, especially when it's featuring color-drenched art pieces.
