These front-of-house uniforms are cool enough to wear on and off the floor.
Miguel McSongwe; Courtesy of Panenka and San Ho Won Softshell Bike Jacket
Gone are the days of stiff, narrowly gendered cocktail dresses and bowties of yesteryears. Restaurant owners are collaborating with boutique designers to create custom outfits that are made for every type of body. Here are three examples for inspiration.
When doing research in Mexico City, the creative team at Los Felix peaked inside a restaurant where they saw a man wearing a beautiful, understated coat. They asked where it was from; “Simple by Trista,” he replied. Now, Simple by Trista creates the top for Los Felix’s front-of-house uniform. The gender-neutral shirt is stylishly boxy and lightweight — an essential quality to survive a shift in the hot Miami sun. They’re also wrinkle-free (thanks to a specialized washing process by Kaltex) and completely colorless. “Los Felix has very serene, neutral, sandy walls,” says Pili Restrepo, the creative director at Grass Fed Culture Hospitality. “We just didn’t want it to have any color that would overpower that vibe.” For the pants, they went with something stain-resistant and always in stock: Dickies work pants in gingerbread brown.
Chef Corey Lee and project director Jasmine Peterlin had a couple things in mind when developing the San Ho Won front-of-house uniform. “First and foremost, it needed to be comfortable and adaptable to different body types,” says Peterlin. “We also wanted it to feel both classic and modern to match our style of food, which is rooted in home cooking and traditional flavors but embraces modern techniques.” They were also looking for something that was akin to a butcher’s coat — a playful nod to their Korean barbecue menu. They landed on Panenka, a Tokyo-based designer that specializes in chic lab coats. They partnered with Panenka to adjust the length, develop a third size, and select a navy blue color. “The architecture is slightly industrial and has a very neutral palette so the uniforms were a nice way to introduce a bit of color into the space,” Peterlin says. “And the blue also happens to be a very classic workwear color.”
“The initial idea for the front-of-house uniform at Jac’s on Bond was to create something that blended old and new worlds, offering both comfort and mobility,” says Carlos Quirarte, partner at Authentic Hospitality. “Clean and modern but not too fancy.” It made perfect sense for him to partner with his friend, Angelo Baque, founder of the streetwear brand, AWAKE NY. “I wanted the uniform to have a clean and subdued aesthetic that looks quintessentially New York,” Baque adds. Together, they custom-designed a white rayon undershirt and short-sleeve button-down printed with the Jac's on Bond logo. They're paired with carpenter pants with a classic hammer loop and what Baque calls, a “NY footwear staple:” white Nike Air Force 1s.
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