Drab to Fab

Author:

Brandon Quattrone and Jake Santelli collaborate to reforge an outdated hospitality space
into L.A.’s new place to be—Galerie on Sunset

Checkerboard marble flooring by Castelli Marble adds classic style inside the bar where the duo added arches over the shelving. Photos by David Zimmerman Photography.

“We wanted it to feel classic, but with a 1970s twist,” says multidisciplinary creative Brandon Quattrone on the design he devised alongside friend and prior collaborator Jake Santelli for one of L.A.’s hottest new spots—Galerie on Sunset. Located just below the famed Chateau Marmont on the Sunset Strip, the Tudor-style structure had layers of renovations and additions that were full of trend and didn’t honor the architecture. “We had to bring it back to its essence and make it feel like some of these details had been there all along. Unearthed but with a new lens,” says Quattrone.

Burgundy drapes by Sunbrella are juxtaposed with Sunbrella’s Pashmina Mist on the settees in the outdoor dining space.
Photos by David Zimmerman Photography.

Unlike most restaurant redesigns, the project moved quickly, in part because Santelli’s long-standing friendship and years of mutual trust with owner Trae Meyer-Whalley streamlined the process. One of the main goals was to instill big, bold Sunset Strip moments. Quattrone recalls, “We also needed to peel back the details that just weren’t working anymore in the space and to give it that classic Parisian feel but in a Hollywood way. Again, we’re right below the famed Chateau Marmont, so there’s got to be a dialogue with an icon without replicating or copying it!”

Amelia Toile wallpaper by Amaranth adds feminine flare in the women’s bathroom. Photos by David Zimmerman Photography.
The designers enlisted events production team Whalefilm to build a custom floor-length mirror that has become an Instagram sensation. Photos by David Zimmerman Photography.

Arches were added over the bar shelving next to expansive window seats designed to inspire casual conversation, and an oversize “beauty vanity” mirror in the women’s room vestibule has proven to be a huge social media hit. The current It color burgundy, reigns throughout on the checkerboard marble flooring by Castelli Marble and the vinyl fabric by Nassimi on the booths that Quattrone proclaims “is major!” When asked what the owner felt about their work, the design duo added, “We took this place from dive bar lore to classic Hollywood Sunset Strip lounge.”