When it comes to design, new Milwaukee restaurants lighten up

Loads of salvaged wood; moody, dark colors; muscular, industrial elements; stylish but unyielding chairs. It was a look we'd seen a lot of at restaurants in recent years.

It spoke to a certain thriftiness as the Great Recession played out. It was comforting, in its way — those dark dining rooms wrapped around diners like a protective cocoon.

Several restaurants that debuted in the past six months have taken a different, lighter path: seafood restaurant Third Coast Provisions downtown; Bodegón, the Spanish steakhouse in Hotel Madrid (with its adjoining bar, Vermutería 600) in Walker's Point; and Belfre Kitchen, a cafe-by-day, restaurant-by-night in Delafield.

(The review of Third Coast Provisions is on Page 5 of Weekend Tap; Bodegón and Belfre Kitchen reviews will appear in the coming weeks.)

See how this trio of newcomers has gone for a new look and keep diner comfort in mind:

Third Coast Provisions

There's so much for the eye to drink in at Third Coast Provisions, starting with the porthole at the front door. Inside, the stylish dining room commands attention from the ceiling (and its modern light fixtures, matte brass metalwork and prominent skylight) on down.

When chef Andrew Miller walked into 724 N. Milwaukee St. to consider leasing the space, it had been vacated by the steakhouse Carnevor for new digs, and it still wore its dark, clubby mantle. He wanted the opposite for his new seafood restaurant. "I wanted it to be lighter, timeless," Miller said.

Painted in pale tones, the restaurant designed by CBD Architects of Chicago evokes a light-filled day on the water without heavy-handed cliches. Textures like mother of pearl wallpaper add interest; so do images of tone-on-tone nautilus and fish fossils on handmade plaster tiles and stencils that, on close inspection, are stylized octopuses.

Matte brass makes a geometric back bar for bottles; it climbs up and across the ceiling — let your imagination run, and it looks a little like a lobster cage. One guest-friendly feature of the bar is the extended "elbows" at the end that make it easy for four patrons to face each other and converse.

Large mirrors, antiqued in gold, brighten the space and make the narrow building feel more expansive. (It's not a small restaurant, though; between the main floor and the double mezzanine, Third Coast can seat 160.)

Chair styles at the marble tables vary by area, but all of them are modern, and all of them are comfortable. "Comfort was definitely the first thing that came to mind," Miller said about choosing seating. Because the chef spends his days on his feet, uncomfortable restaurant furniture is a pet peeve when he dines out.

Comfort is kept in mind in other ways, too. Carpeting in the mezzanine dining areas, which are more compact and more likely to amplify chatter, helps absorb sound. Over the main floor, what merely looks like an attractively decorative ceiling is actually subtle soundproofing.

Third Coast Provisions is a gorgeous restaurant, with stimulation for the eye wherever it lands. If you said it was Milwaukee's loveliest restaurant right now, I wouldn't argue with you.

Bodegón

It's an elegant little room, this finer-dining restaurant in Hotel Madrid, done in white and neutral tones. But a room has to have drama, and this restaurant's comes in the form of spangly jackets of bullfighters.

They're fitted over forms, lined along one wall — red amplified with gold, blue with white, black with silver.

With Spanish guitar music playing in the background, the dining room very much sets a mood and conjures a sense of place.

The walls and the 1910 building's pressed tin ceiling are painted white to open up the room; lighting warms it and keeps it from looking austere. Comfortable mismatched chairs give the room informality and variety.

Most of the custom black walnut and faux granite tables are bare, but at the far end of the dining room, at the tall windows covered in gauzy curtains, cloths cover two tables that are pulled up to cushy settees. It's seating to sink into and relax.

At the other end of the room, glossy black subway tile frames the open kitchen where the chef and cooks work.

The in-the-works micro hotel at 600 S. 6th St., its restaurant and bar,  Vermutería 600, are from the Stand Eat Drink restaurant group, which opened the Spanish tapas restaurant Movida on S. 2nd St. in 2014.

"I wanted to bring that part of Spain that felt like home" to the project, said SED partner Andrei Mikhail, a onetime resident of Spain who designed the space in conjunction with Solid State Architecture.

He took as inspiration author and game hunter Ernest Hemingway, and the time Hemingway spent in Spain, Cuba and Key West.

That's why the chandeliers in the dining room look like rings of antlers. "Trophies" in the bar in shiny black resin — an elephant, a buffalo, a Tyrannosaurus rex, with tusks, horns and teeth painted in gold — keep the mood light.

That's one story that the design conveys. But there's a personal aspect, too; Mikhail wanted to conjure the spirit of an old-school restaurant like the one owned by friends of his father's near the Palace Hotel in Madrid, where bullfighters would gather to socialize.

Bodegón is what he imagined that restaurant was like. And to help cement the feeling, a 1949 painting his father bought in Spain more than 40 years ago hangs in the dining room, near the table just outside the kitchen.

Belfre Kitchen

The white steepled building at 606 N. Genesee St. in Delafield has had multiple incarnations since it was constructed as a church in 1869: a shop, an event planning business and now as a contemporary American restaurant, Belfre Kitchen.

Step in and see inky blue trim that sets off the pale walls; it's a restful palette, but the space comes with its own energy.

First, the dramatic, geometric chandelier over the entry pulls eyes upward, then the former choir loft up the stairs does the same. The dining loft is delineated with new millwork that mimics old-fashioned porch railings, with circle cutouts for interest.

Because the building at its heart is a simple structure, aspects like the palette and the new millwork were kept simple, too, the designer said.

"We had to honor the building," Amy Carman of Amy Carman Design in Elm Grove said.

Belfre Kitchen owner Amy Quinn wanted the space to feel cozy and family-friendly, Carman said. Intimate nooks with cushioned banquettes are on either side of the door; a  partial wall that divides the entry and the small bar actually supplies privacy for the banquette on its other side.

After the voluminous height of the entry and main dining area, the ceiling over the bar is only 7½ feet. One of the dominant design elements there is brass with a matte finish, used to create a delicate back bar that holds bottles and glassware. "We wanted to create a jewel box, something that's small and special" in the bar area, Carman said. "The brass was really powerful that way."

The brass is echoed in the modern, linear bar stools; the bartop, a manmade material, has the luxe look of Carrara marble.

"We wanted that really kind of classic feel," Carman said, akin to a French bistro. In the main dining room, woven black-and-white chairs are similar to French bistro chairs; upstairs, the seating's look is streamlined leather.

Also upstairs in the former choir loft is another decorative element with the look of matte brass, pipes arranged in a wave across the wall. Aha — like the pipes of a church organ.

Contact Carol Deptolla at (414) 224-2841, carol.deptolla@jrn.com or on Twitter, @mkediner.