A new 390-m2 (4,200-sf) Italian restaurant and bar named Bombo Kitchen and Bar has opened inside the Seattle Convention Center.
Designed by Graham Baba Architects, the restaurant features large bi-fold Douglas fir doors that open straight onto the convention center’s 9th Street plaza.
As one enters the restaurant from the plaza, the environment is accentuated by rich natural materials. The woodstone pizza oven is accented by hand-crafted terracotta tiles from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, intermixed with rusticated white subway tiles and surrounded by blackened steel. The signature open-kitchen format interfaces with the public via maple butcher block countertops and exposed oak shelves, holding everything from stacks of white dishes to cutlery to pizza boxes.
A custom wood-and-steel bar ledge runs along the exterior from the main entry vestibule to the mixing zone.
Downstairs along 9th Street is the entrance to The Bar at Bombo, a 201-m2 (2,160-sf) bar that is divided into two parts: lounge and bar. The lounge occupies the first half, which has a high-backed, tufted, sinuous leather banquette with movable tables and chairs.
To highlight the high ceiling above the lounge and draw attention from the street and plaza, a local artisan created a custom “smudge pot” light inspired by vineyard heaters in France and Italy. A fritted channel glass wall and cedar columns separate the lounge and bar, adding depth and movement.
The bar front features striated gray limestone with fossil traces, and a solid walnut counter.
