Visual Display’s award-winning Ristorante Agli Amici

Eating out is a multisensory experience and deserves to be celebrated as such, especially at a great temple of the culinary arts such as Ristorante „Agli Amici 1887“ in Udine, awarded two Michelin stars. During the restyling of the restaurant by Giorgio di Bernardi’s creative studio Visual Display, known to our readers for its interior design characterised by great storytelling ability, a new intermediate area was created providing a sort of prelude to what is about to come.
Visual Display completely redesigned the room that once contained the old tavern in the town square, transforming it into the new entrance to ‘ Agli Amici 1887’. 
The concept was developed with the client and reflects the restaurant-owner’s intention of establishing more dialogue „between inside and outside, between man and nature, as the owners love the natural element,“ say the designers in their note for the press, resulting in „a place suspended in time, silent, surprising, and representative of the very essence of the restaurant“.
Visual Display’s project is true to its mission of designing not only beautiful interiors but places where people feel good and fully enjoy the space around them. And so the designers make skilful use of colour and materials to create the atmosphere they want. The entrance to the Blue Lounge opens behind a thick curtain: a treasure chest dominated by warm hues of blue, hence the name, extending to cover the architecture, the furnishings and the fabrics. Blue, known to convey a sensation of positivity, confidence and security, is brightened up here by artificial light from a big light installation inspired by the world of contemporary art.
Designed as an introduction to the restaurant proper, a place for enjoying a drink in preparation for the gastronomic experience that follows, the space revolves around the bar counter. Like a stage, it offers the chefs an opportunity to display their arts while guests enjoy the show and the drink prepared right at their tables, with the aid of a geometric volume composed of two separable elements on wheels used as a preparation counter.
Visual Display’s design for the Blue Lounge extends to the acoustics, which have a major influence on the overall experience. The designers installed sound-absorbent recycled plastic panelling on the ceiling, creating a muffled atmosphere „ while hiding the light points that sculpt the space with bright accents only where necessary,“ as the architects explain.
Despite these efforts to create a rarefied atmosphere, the lounge maintains a concrete relationship with its surroundings, in line with the client’s philosophy of focusing on local products and flavours: two big windows open onto the restaurant’s beauty inner courtyard, creating a bond with nature that is elegantly mediated by Visual Display’s savoir faire. Diners enjoy a truly special experience, beginning with the interior design of the lounge.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Visual Display
Location: Udine, Italy
Year: 2022
Images: Alessandro Paderni / Eye Studio