Scarpetta

Not many people could make a concrete connection between Miami, Florida’s party town, and Doha, the financial and cultural capital of Qatar. But John Edwards can. He is the founder and owner of Scarpetta, a restaurant that started out in New York’s Meatpacking district in 2008 and now has a number of outposts around the world.

“There’s a parallel with Miami,” says Edwards of Doha, where he opened a new Scarpetta in the seaside city of Lusail, just north of the Qatar capital, in 2022. “You’re in a beach resort, you’re near the water, people like to dress up.” The Miami and the Doha editions of his restaurant, which offers excellent Italian food and old-world hospitality, are also united by David Collins Studio, which designed both spaces.

That, though, is where the similarities end. If Miami is about a communal energy –“the centre of the room is the prime spot: people go out to be seen,” says Edwards – then the restaurant in Lusail is a rather more discreet affair. “We always start with the plan of the room, and in Qatar that was about private nooks and intimate spaces. You have a serious community here focussed on business and culture and the design reflects a need for calmness and discretion.”

Simon Rawlings, the chief creative officer at David Collins Studio, already knew Doha well when he embarked upon the project. He had worked on significant projects in Doha and spent a decade travelling back and forth. “It’s a place where work is carried out to the very highest standard,” he says, “and that means you can go for very strong, bold ideas: simple moves in beautiful materials that need to be executed perfectly.” Among the latter are sumptuous leathers, dark and light oaks, mirror, marbles and exquisite textiles including a sheer crocodile crochet that curtains the foyer of the private dining room.

Both the restaurant concept and the geographical context underpinned the design. “From the outset, when we opened in New York, Scarpetta was about the food. We got a James Beard award in the first year,” says John Meadows, an American whose family is of Venetian origins, and who lived in Rome for many years. Fare la scarpetta, he explains, means mopping up every last morsel on the plate with a little piece of bread. “But where New York likes the funk and the grit, Lusail and Doha are about elegance and quality. As a result, this is the most opulent version of Scarpetta that we’ve made.”

The restaurant is situated within the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, newly built by architects WATG on the Lusail beachfront. “But we didn’t want to go beach club,” says Simon Rawlings. “Instead, we thought about a lovely contrast to the waterfront, more suit and loafers than super-casual.” In fact, the biggest influence on the interior is Italy itself, and the 20th Century architect Carlo Scarpa, who reinterpreted the aesthetics, crafts and materials of historic Venetian design for his times. There are silver travertine-clad columns throughout, travertine architraves above the doors that lead to the terraces and terrazzo flooring with chunky inclusions, all of which pay homage to the Italian master.

The visitor enters Scarpetta through glass double doors, fitted with bespoke triangular brass handles, where a Palladiano terrazzo floor and handcrafted lights in textured glass set the tone of Italianate sophistication. On the bar’s Calcutta d’oro marble top sit table-lights hand-cast in Jesmonite by London designer Malgorzata Bany. “We work with European designers,” says Simon Rawlings. “But we also love things to be made locally.” David Collins Studio CEO and Founder, Iain Watson, echoes this and talks of hours spent in the souk seeing what is the best that the locale has to offer.

The 56-seater main restaurant is subtly divided into zones with curved banquettes in dark oak with cognac leather upholstery. Specially designed dining chairs are in the same wood and a rich brown leather. The room is hung with rectangular bevelled mirrors, suspended from minimal brown leather straps. Tabletops are light wood or Verde Alpi Scuri marble. “Every surface you touch is a natural material,” says Iain Watson. “But the room’s atmosphere is flexible. It’s good for a casual lunch, and then for a fancy dinner.”

The walls are in dragged plaster which Simon Rawlings explains “doesn’t’ reflect too much light. It creates shadows. A lot of the finishes are matte,” he continues. “I wanted that sensitivity.” Even the travertine of the columns is a silvery grey, with a shimmer that has the feeling of desert sand.

In the private dining room, a stunning chandelier, 1.4 metres at its longest drop, and made from thousands of Capiz shell disks, commands the space. While on the main terrace it is the view – this is where guests finally get to look out at the Arabian sea. “The outdoor spaces and the greenery are important in the context of Lusail,” says Simon Rawlings. “The colours also need to reflect where you are in the world, with this amazing light. They are all slightly knocked-back to create a sun-bleached sensation.” Curved banquette seats are in grey-painted timber and upholstered in a soft yellow.

But it is perhaps in the covered Cigar Terrace where the guests will feel themselves closest to the restaurant’s Italian heart. There, beneath a domed ceiling in rendered concrete, sits a full-size Mediterranean olive tree, flourishing with delicate branches and silver leaves. Like John Edwards, and Scarpetta itself, it might find itself many miles from home, but its spirit is quintessentially, and vibrantly, Italian.