Brand-Shifting Renovations for Fire+Ice Restaurant, Boston

Brand-Shifting Renovations for Fire+Ice Restaurant, Boston

Sorensen Partners was Interior Designer for improvements to Fire+Ice Boston’s major upstairs space, which includes the famous round grill, the ‘markets’ (buffet serving bars), and the lighting, tabletops, and paint scheme. We worked closely with Fire+Ice Chairman Jim Miller and his management and operations team to observe existing workflows and customer circulation and to quantify the likely impact of an array of improvements.

Building on the successful bonding ritual of grill-side excitement and banter with the chefs, the new design scheme moves the brand image towards a ‘foodie’/ ‘healthy & fresh’ feel while building on the existing market of ‘explorer’ customers who come to socialize around the experience of crafting a meal. Fire+Ice’s physical improvements accompany a new menu of lunch-time bowls by Chef Jeff Fournier of Newton MA’s ’51 Lincoln.’

Through close discussion with the Fire+Ice team, we prioritized improvements to the layout and lighting of the fresh ‘market’ food buffet – including specification of food-flattering spectrum LEDs. We targeted replacement of fixtures throughout the restaurant to create warm glowing white and amber light and a more delicate selection of fixtures, replacing a youthful palette.

The new lighting scheme for the restaurant is presently being rolled out, including sneeze-guard-mounted food-flattering LEDs for the ‘markets.’  The new ‘market’ displays add metal and pressed-resin Buganbilia bowls for material interest and intersperse this setup with a grid of square-walled  insulated units for a boutique farm-to-table feel.

Our work for Fire+Ice started with an analysis of possible renovations based their potential impact and cost. We presented this as a Harvey ball diagram, including uncertainty and risk in the assessment.

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