Melt Away

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Marc Ange creates a sensual backdrop that highlights the voluptuous pleasures of Muse’s visionary approach to classic French cuisine

At the restaurant’s hostess stand, Marc Ange’s Fantino wall sconce is paired with art by Joan Miró.
Photos by Pablo Enriquez.

West Channel road has long been the go-to for paparazzi hoping to catch a celebrity striding into Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi. Now there’s a new spot for them to stake out. Muse, which started as a pop-up at U.S.C., has graduated, along with its founders, chef Fardad Khayami and his roommate David Gelland, to an elegant setting designed by Marc Ange Design Studio.

To carry out their vision—innovative interpretations of classic French cuisine complemented by exquisite service and museum-quality art—chef Khayami and bar director Gelland turned to Italian-born artist and designer Marc Ange to transform the intimate space, which offers seating for just 35 guests in the dining room and four at the marble-topped bar (there’s also a private dining room that seats 12). Ange looked to chef Khayami’s memories of growing up in London in a large Persian family.

The Fantino chandelier designed by Marc Ange dangles over the center of the intimate dining room. The Fantino wall sconces and the split-back velvet Fantino dining chairs were also designed by Marc Ange. Photos by Pablo Enriquez.

“We began with his experiences of traveling—from St-Tropez to Paris,” he remembers. Ange then added his own memories: of a chic and wild childhood that vibrated between Paris and Rome and cultivated his love for the romanticism of early 20th-century European interiors and his fascination with the Surrealist movement. Finished with a whiff of California cool and a sprinkle of Hollywood glam, the result is a study in sensuality, washed in warm flesh tones and peppered, for its debut itineration, with a selection of artworks by renowned Catalan-Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Miró.

Marc Ange’s Sfogliatella wall sconce illuminates the powder room. Photos by Pablo Enriquez.

Custom curved banquettes and substantial chairs upholstered in plush velvet, rich wood paneling, glowing sculptural bespoke sconces and fluted felt walls cocoon diners in comfort, heightening the voluptuous pleasures of a well-prepared and exquisitely presented meal. “There’s a feeling of being suspended in time,” Ange shares. “The idea was to create a world that allowed diners to lose themselves in the sensuality of their experience of beauty and texture, taste and conversation, where the outside world seems, for the moment, to disappear.”