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Elmwood Restaurant

Elmwood is a modern American restaurant founded by, Adam Altnether and Chris Kelling, inspired by their respective St. Louis and California roots, with influences from abroad. The restaurant boasts an open-yet-closed kitchen, a charcoal-burning grill, and the only charcoal-fueled oven in the United States. The menu highlights classic midwestern dishes inflected with global flavors and is complemented by a wine program proudly focused on California vintners, with a selection of offerings from international winemakers.

When Adam and Chris collaborated and decided that their new “live fire” restaurant in Maplewood would have some unusual aesthetic touches, they knew they both wanted to be in the mix of the design and construction phases. They contacted Architect Kyle Nottmeier to help fuel their vision and create an environment that looked like nothing else; exposed beams, artisanal pieces, neon signs, soft concrete floors, metal, brick and tiled walls.

The architect contacted Bomanite Licensee, Musselman & Hall Contractors, LLC about flooring options for the restaurant space, given the challenges it presented they needed a contractor with full expertise in commercial renovations. The space had both wood framed floors as well as concrete decking with everything covering it from terrazzo to tile underlayment. After reviewing product samples and colors presented by Musselman & Hall Contractors, it was determined the best option would be the Bomanite Toppings Systems Micro-Top.

Bomanite Micro-Top uses cutting edge technology, that tenaciously bonds to virtually any substrate. It can be applied with a squeegee or troweled onto the surface at a thickness of approximately 20 mils. With the condition of the Elmwood Restaurant floor, Bomanite Micro-Top was perfect for renovating the multiple floor surfaces. Once awarded the project, Musselman & Hall Contractors began working directly with the owners as they were self-performing some of the construction and serving as the construction managers during the renovations.

Knowing that the floor demanded a substantial amount of preparation before the Bomanite Micro-Top could be placed, Musselman & Hall Contractors chose to place a layer of wire lathe over the areas of wood framed flooring, then covered the lathe with Bomanite Repair Mortar. They also used the Bomanite Repair Mortar to level and patch over the remaining area after grinding the surface with 25 grit diamonds. The floor was in such poor condition, the owners were excited just to see the prepped and primed floor without even one coat of Bomanite Micro-Top placed.

Once the surface prep was finally completed, the first base coat of Bomanite Micro-Top (white base) with a Bomanite Shale Gray tint was placed. The surface was primed with Bomanite XP Primer for the first base coat and primed using Bomanite Micro-Top liquid diluted for each following coat. Each base coat was sanded and then thoroughly cleaned. The finish coat was applied with steel trowels to provide some character in the floor. The idea was to emulate the look of a hard-troweled concrete floor. The effect turned out perfectly, pleasing the owners and architect.

The Bomanite Micro-Top floor along with the vertical areas at the entry ramp and stairs were given a final seal with two coats of Bomanite XP Primer FC and then two coats of Bomanite Natural Beauty floor finish. The transition of the floor astounded the other contractors and the owners. Musselman & Hall Contractors helped transition this neighborhood restaurant with Bomanite Decorative Concrete, providing a place for private conversation, relaxation and authentically creative food.

With Bomanite Micro-Top, a wide range of colors can be applied to create uniformity or blended to create variegation in the finish. Bomanite Micro-Top can reduce costly forming and coloring in outdoor treatments. Limitless color combinations and graphic designs can be used to transform damaged existing concrete or other materials into cementitious art forms, without affecting surrounding materials and fixtures. Musselman & Hall Contractors, LLC won the 2018 Best Bomanite Toppings Systems Project Bronze Award for their thoroughness and expertise with renovations of commercial interior flooring.

Angeline by Michael Symon Restaurant (Modena SL)

Located in Atlantic City’s Marina District, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is steadfast at introducing diverse, innovative and world-class dining experiences. Guests looking for a one-of-a-kind culinary experience on the East Coast will find that the Borgata offers a wide array of restaurants and world-renowned chefs under one roof, including Wolfgang Puck (Wolfgang Puck American Grille), Bobby Flay (Bobby Flay Steak), Michael Schulson (Izakaya Modern Japanese Pub), Geoffrey Zakarian (The Water Club hotel at Borgata), restaurateurs Greg and Marc Sherry (Old Homestead Steak House) and now Michael Symon’s Angeline.

Angeline is Iron Chef and James Beard Award winner chef Michael Symon’s ode to classic Italian food, inspired by his heritage and personal history. Growing up with Greek and Sicilian influences, Michael Symon creates meaningful dishes that showcase his unabashed love for food, passionate hospitality and zest for life. The menu captures nostalgia with red-sauce style favorites from family recipes, including his mother Angeline’s Sunday Sauce. The design of the restaurant needed to reflect this balance of old and new world.

Parts and Labor Design, a New York-based interior design firm, whose breadth of work includes restaurants, bars, hotels and retail projects at every scale, collaborated with Philadelphia’s famed Cope-Linder Architects to pull together the design of the 8,200-square-foot Italian restaurant Angeline by Michael Symon. The 223-seat fine dining experience features a bar area, main dining room and private dining space, with the intent to showcase the soulful cooking and joyful personality synonymous with the award-winning chef. It’s described as a mix of casino glam with the comfortable familiarity of a typical neighborhood Italian restaurant.

Bomanite Licensee, Beyond Concrete, having worked previously on several other top-chef restaurants at the Borgata, was brought in by Cope-Linder Architects to make sure the restaurant interior flooring was up to the design standards and within budget. Knowing the specification called for approximately 1,800 of square feet of polished concrete floors, Beyond Concrete proceeded with showcasing several custom samples with variety of colors and depth of exposure, to the architect as well as to ABC’s The Chew co-host Chef Michael Symon. The Bomanite Modena SL Custom Polishing System was chosen for its sleek and modern design, complimenting the mixed media used throughout the dining establishment.

In preparation for the Bomanite Modena SL System the floorings base slab needed to be corrected as it was extensively out of level and in poor condition. Custom colors in black and brown pigments were mixed for the final color placement of the Bomanite Modena SL System. Once cured, the flooring was ground and polished to a medium satin finish and given two coats of Bomanite Stainguard for that final seal and durable protection. Beyond Concrete’s expertise in the field made sure that the high-end restaurant was engineered for a super star review.

The Bomanite Modena Custom Polishing System is an engineered interior cementitious topping that is blended with selected aggregates and then ground and polished to the desired gloss level. The Modena system transforms existing or worn surfaces into beautiful walkways, showrooms, restaurants and lobbies and is available in a range of colors and patterns using decorative sawcuts. Additional topically applied stains and a variety of aggregates, such as recycled glass or porcelain along with regionally sourced materials, are all options in creating a beautifully designed, environmentally friendly and functional floor. The Modena system is a low-cost alternative for renovation projects and provides the durability and strength for this exceptionally long lifespan system. With the industry’s lowest lifecycle costs, low to zero VOC and minimal maintenance requirements, Modena by Bomanite is the optimal choice for renewed surfaces.

AWARDS: Beyond Concrete received the 2018 Best Bomanite Custom Polishing Project Honorable Mention Award for their work on Angeline by Michael Symon.

Starbucks Brookside (Modena SL)

The General Contractor, J.E. Foster Building Company, contacted Bomanite Licensee, Musselman & Hall Contractors, LLC about a new Starbucks Coffeehouse being built in the Brookside community of Kansas City. Starbucks was considering the incorporation of new flooring material in a prototype store.

Starbucks design studios are located around the world so that their designers can fully understand the communities they serve. The mission of each designer is to create a spectacular Starbucks café experience that is steeped in the local culture and reflects the unique characteristics of each neighborhood.

Starbucks believes a coffeehouse should be a welcoming, inviting and familiar place for people to connect, so they design their stores to reflect the unique character of the neighborhoods they serve. They are also interested in the way design can connect everyone to sustainable building practices and provoke thoughtful questions and engagement with the built environment. To guide their building and design efforts, Starbucks uses the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® certification program as a benchmark for success.  In addition to reducing energy and water consumption, they incorporate reused and recycled materials wherever possible and often use locally inspired design details and materials in their stores.

After some research and several references, the general contractor worked with the local contractor Musselman & Hall for assistance. Based on a tile sample provided by the Starbucks design team and an overall design concept, Musselman & Hall produced a series of Bomanite Custom Polishing Modena SL samples for the client’s consideration. The samples immediately impressed the Starbucks staff.

The Modena System, unique to Bomanite, is a trowel applied cementitious overlay that contains zero VOC and no solvents in the chemically hardening product with attributes to its “Low-Emitting Materials” LEED credits. Modena is polished to a highly durable finish and is commonly used to renovate floors that are unacceptable candidates for polished concrete. It can be applied as thin as 1/8” or as thick as ¾” dependent upon existing elevations. Modena can be either highly decorative with aggregate exposure or simpler with light aggregate exposure similar to finely ground concrete.

The Modena system contributes to additional LEED accrual points in “Innovation by Design” by its ability to renovate an existing concrete slab that would otherwise be unsuitable for concrete polishing. This provides specifiers the ability to use polished concrete much as they would traditionally select a manufactured tile or other flooring system only without the maintenance requirements. Bomanite Modena is more economical than typical terrazzo, is breathable which minimizes moisture vapor issues, can be colored in any color, lessens the amount of product brought to a jobsite compared to stone or tile and provides all the benefits of polished concrete.

The relatively small project (600 SF) utilized the Bomanite Nickel Gray Integrally Colored Bomanite Modena SL system. The polished overlay was placed at approximately ½” thick. The overlay was ground and polished to a 400-grit finish. Musselman & Hall coordinated with Starbucks artist who utilized a portion of the floor as a canvas to paint a fun and colorful mural. This is the first Starbucks location in the region to utilize the Bomanite Custom Polishing Modena SL flooring system.

The finished floor is a simple, but elegant representation of the design flexibility of decorative architectural concrete and Bomanite’s diverse sustainable offering of floor systems.

AWARDS: 2018 Bomanite Custom Polishing Project – Honorable Mention

Mellow Mushroom Restaurant

Mellow Mushroom pizzerias began in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia, featuring their signature hippy-inspired décor, pizza crust made with spring water and offerings for people with all types of dietary restrictions such as gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian. Mellow Mushroom has since expanded across the south and one of the newest stores has recently been completed in Round Rock, Texas.

Each franchise features a different theme for each of its venues. Architects, Oxley Williams Tharp have worked with Mellow Mushroom for years, around the country, to provide a unique dining experience where each individual franchisee’s personality is represented in the design. From rotating cows, to airstream trailers, they work with the artists to generate an environment that is both dynamic, fun and truly unique.

Led by general contractors JJO Construction out of Ohio, Texas Bomanite was called on to add to the unique “vibe” of the chain by bedecking the expansive patio encompassing the restaurant. The 1,035 SF patio was created with a Bomanite Micro-Top XT grey base, stained with Bomanite Chemical Stain Auburn and sealed with Bomanite HydroLock. The Auburn concrete stain color contributes to the warm and laid-back ambience of the patio to encourage diners to come and stay awhile.

Stout NYC – Bar and Restaurant

The Stout Bar offers an old world feel with Bomanite Thin-Set. Bomanite Thin-Set is a specially formulated, polymer-modified topping system applied at a thickness of approximately 3/8-inch. A great design option for virtually any structurally sound surface, old or new, Bomanite Thin-Set offers all the durability, cost effectiveness, and ease of maintenance decorative concrete has to offer.

The Stout Bar, located at John Street in the Wall Street area of NYC, chose Bomanite Thin-Set for their renovated space, giving the restaurant an old world feel with a cobblestone pattern.Approximately 2,400 square feet of the Running Bond Cobblestone stampable overlay pattern was installed. Extensive grinding, clean-up and patching of the existing floor was needed.  Application of an epoxy bonding agent was applied and then the Bomanite Thin-Set in Bomanite French Gray Color with Bomanite Cobblestone Gray Color highlights. The newly renovated floor was given a coat of Bomanite Hydrocoat Sealer.

Along with the new flooring a custom 85 foot long concrete bar top was poured and stained with Bomanite Concrete Dye Sweet Potato and protected with Bomanite Florspartic 100 sealer. The owners also received a custom brass Stout Beer Mug logo.