Set in a former pasta factory and grocery in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Café Mars is an “unusual Italian” restaurant designed by Format Architecture Office, drawing on influences from Memphis Milano to the Amalfi Coast. A slender oak-clad bar acts as the spine of the space, dividing and organizing distinct cooking and dining zones, with a row of booths along one wall and a private group dining area beyond a rear archway. The restaurant has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand and recognition from Interior Design’s Best of Year Awards and NYCxDesign.
LSTN provided acoustics and audiovisual consulting for the project. The restaurant’s industrial shell and open, multi-zone layout—bar, main dining, and private dining sharing a single hard-surfaced volume—presented a classic restaurant acoustics challenge: keeping the room lively without letting noise build to a level that interferes with conversation, particularly as activity picks up across zones with very different character. Our acoustic design focused on treatment integrated into the space’s industrial materiality to manage reverberation and background noise level. On the AV side, we designed a zoned background music system, allowing the bar, main dining room, and private dining area to be controlled independently to suit each space’s distinct mood and use.
