Pat Dawson

Hospitality · New York · 2022–23

Caleta & Bad Habit

A restaurant and scoop shop moved from concept through permitting, construction, inspection, and opening without sanding off its attitude.

Deep black finishes, silky plaster, mirrored bars, rated glass, and an ADA restroom disco ball held a deliberately subversive concept inside a code-compliant hospitality operation.

PlaceFabricationCulture

Role

Business development · strategy · lead design · delivery

Outcome

A hospitality project delivered from schematic design through permitting, construction, and opening.

The completed interior: black tile, custom bar, and warm light.
The completed interior: black tile, custom bar, and warm light.

The operating story

What the system held,
and what it left human.

Caleta & Bad Habit wanted the opposite of the clean white-tiled ice-cream parlor. The work translated that attitude into architecture and carried it through the full arc: concept, client review, permit drawings, construction, inspections, punch, and opening. Black finishes ran from the scooping counter into the lounge; silky plaster, exposed brick, mirrored bars, red light, warped grids, and a disco ball kept the room serious about atmosphere but not about itself. The harder design work sat behind the surfaces. Fire-rated walls had to separate the kitchen, while the experience depended on seeing the operation. Rated glass inserts preserved that sightline without weakening the code strategy. The role crossed 3D visualization, construction documents, fabricator coordination, city review, and field decisions. Design intent and fire/life safety pulled in different directions, and both had to win.

Construction, inspection, and opening assembled as one delivery record.
Construction, inspection, and opening assembled as one delivery record.
Permit-set detail linking design intent to field execution.
Permit-set detail linking design intent to field execution.

By the numbers

  • Concept → permit → opening
  • Rated kitchen separation
  • ADA + fire/life safety coordination

Artifacts that carry the case

  1. Material and lighting studies
  2. Permit / construction set
  3. Rated-glass field detail
Caleta and Bad Habit at opening.
Caleta and Bad Habit at opening.
Red light, black tile, and mirrored surfaces carried the concept into the dining room.
Red light, black tile, and mirrored surfaces carried the concept into the dining room.
Bad Habit extended the project from architecture into product and atmosphere.
Bad Habit extended the project from architecture into product and atmosphere.
01

Translate attitude

A black, reflective, red-lit palette rejected the expected genre without giving up hospitality or operational clarity.

02

Resolve the code

Rated glass maintained the design-critical connection to the kitchen while satisfying fire separation.

03

Carry it through

Modeling, drawings, fabricators, permits, inspections, and punch were treated as one continuous design responsibility.