Design Dish: Arquet
Author:Lindsey ShookA space inside the Ferry Building that once housed an iconic San Francisco eatery is transformed for a new culinary destination
For anyone who lived in the Bay Area in the past 20 years, the Slanted Door inside the Ferry Building might have been a go-to dining destination. After moving in the spring of 2025 back to it’s original location in the Mission District, the space needed a new prize asset for foodies and tourists alike. In came Arquet, by Chef Alex Hong of Michelin-starred Sorrel, that celebrates his signature clean California cuisine that is fired by a wood-burning oven. In order to make the space feel fresh and akin to his concept, the team enlisted Studio KDA to get the job done. “In hospitality and commercial settings especially, we design with intention at every scale, considering both the guest experience and the operational rhythm behind the scenes,” says Marites Abueg. “From the outset, the clients were clear that the restaurant needed to feel genuinely welcoming—an inclusive place people could visit comfortably, regardless of time or occasion. That emotional brief guided every design decision.”
The restaurant occupies an impressive 8,500-square-feet inside the iconic Ferry Building and therefore needed to feel intimate and welcoming. “Maintaining an open floor plan was essential, with uninterrupted sight lines from the entrance through the kitchen and out to the bay beyond. This transparency reinforces a feeling of connection—between guests, the space, and its surroundings,” she recalls. “Ultimately, the shared vision was to create a restaurant rooted in conviviality and return—a place people would come back to again and again.”
The team wanted the overall design to play a supporting role to Chef Hong’s textured, color-forward menu and therefore, took the direction in a more warm, minimalist tone. “The neutral-toned design draws from Oaxacan, Japanese and Nordic minimalist aesthetics which sounds like an unusual combination until you realize that’s precisely the Bay Area sensibility—globally literate, locally grounded, never pretentious about it,” says Abueg. They installed ash-wood tables, organic ceramic vessels, cacti and one large photograph of the Big Sur coastline that celebrate their love for Northern California. But it’s the restaurant’s signature plaster openings, corners and motifs that make a significant visual impact. Inspired by the name Arquet, that means ‘little arches,’ these details create soft harmony throughout.
When asked how Chef felt about the final design prior to the opening, Abueg recalls, “Alex told us the space felt like him. The warmth of the ash wood, the way the light moves through those arches at different hours of the day, the open kitchen pulling you in the moment you cross the threshold — he said it all felt like an extension of his cooking philosophy rather than a backdrop to it.”
