‘Tailor-made’ redefined

Its name, which translates as ‘The old tailor’s shop in Naples’, references one of the most renowned tailoring businesses in Italian fashion, but the restaurant only has one thing in common with it: its love of craftsmanship and tailor-made products. We are in the heart of Trieste, in Via Torino, in one of the most popular hamburger bars in town, the Antica Sartoria di Napoli, where locals and tourists gather for quick meals and snacks, and where the raw materials are food products rather than fabrics. But to the owners, craftsmanship is not so much a penchant as a fixation, because in addition to the choice of serving home-made products they have created an original and unique ambience in which to host their customers, in a setting that shuns minimalism and dazzling, whiter than white decor and offers instead cosy atmospheres created by the warm and mellow tones of both its furnishings and tiling.
The materials chosen for the floors are the multi-shaded porcelain tiles from the Firenze collection manufactured by Fap Ceramiche, and their hexagonal format immediately calls to mind traditional floors. The multi-shaded surface creates nuances that make each tile unique and different from all the others. This technique also enhances the handcrafted look of the tiles, and the selected tan shade of Cuoio and 25 cm diameter format combines perfectly with the collection’s classical lines (the multi-shade technique creates tone variations in the floor or wall surface, and is widely used to recreate the look of natural materials such as marble, natural stone or wood). Also very interesting is the choice to use hexagonal (or honeycomb) tiles, an iconic feature in elegant early 20th century buildings. The restaurant owners who commissioned the interior design clearly wished to give their establishment an unmistakable vintage look. The origin of hexagonal tiles actually goes back much further in time (they are even found in the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan), but their popularity really took off with Art Deco, and in recent years they have made a strong comeback.
The floor acts as the connecting fabric between all the various spaces of the restaurant and also brings into harmony the country style furniture (wooden chairs in neutral and baby blue shades with straw seats) and the main counter — the real centrepiece of the hamburger bar — in carved wood with chrome edging. It also creates a striking contrast with the very pale natural wood ceiling with exposed beams. The lighting consists of low intensity bulbs arranged in many tiny spotlights mostly concentrated above the tables, which give a sense of movement to the nuances of the tiles.
The restaurant’s interior design has been conceived so as to fit in perfectly with its historical setting in the very heart of Trieste’s old town, with its wealth of cultural highlights such as the Museum of Istrian, Fiumian, and Dalmatian Civilization, and the sumptuous 18th and 19th century palaces overlooking the nearby Piazza dell’Unità.