LITTLE VILLAGE — A Latina-owned design agency is being acknowledged for its work creating the inside of a beloved carnitas restaurant’s lately opened second location in Little Village.
Chicago designer Aida Napoles’ agency, AGN Design, has been nominated for a Hospitality Design Award for her work designing the inside of Carnitas Uruapan’s latest restaurant in Little Village, 3801 W. twenty sixth St. It’s amongst six finalists in one of the best inside design of an informal restaurant class.
Napoles, who grew up in suburban Cicero whereas frequenting Little Village’s bustling industrial hall, teamed with proprietor Marcos Carbajal to create the house, which they needed to replicate the restaurant and neighborhood’s historical past and the world’s deep connections to Mexico.
Carnitas Uruapan is an iconic family-owned Southwest Facet spot that, when it began within the ’70s, relied on secondhand objects for furnishings — a far cry from the fastidiously designed look Napoles and Carbajal dropped at life for the most recent location.
Being nominated for the award is an honor for Napoles, who in 2018 “took a leap” and began her personal design studio after years working in company design companies, the entrepreneur mentioned.
“It made me very proud,” Napoles mentioned. “It’s not all the time that you simply get to listen to an informal Mexican restaurant, owned and operated by a Latino [get nominated]. It simply means lots on all totally different ranges.”
By means of AGN Studio, Napoles has labored to make design attainable for companies of all sizes and budgets, serving to develop and rework Chicago’s hospitality business, she mentioned.
“Good design is for everyone,” she mentioned. “Good design additionally doesn’t want to interrupt the financial institution.”
The proud daughter of Mexican immigrants from the state of Jalisco, Napoles is grateful to her household for supporting her all through the “loopy and superbly chaotic rollercoaster” of proudly owning and main a design agency that’s contributing to the evolution of the Chicago hospitality scene, she mentioned.
Napoles’ purchasers have included Chicago eating places akin to La Josie, Diego, Au Levain Bakery & Cafe, Umaga and The Levie. Napoles has designed areas to inform a narrative and supply clients a singular expertise, she mentioned.
“I give attention to these initiatives, doing design that’s extra private and actually having the ability to be a part of the entire storytelling from the start,” she mentioned.
With Carnitas Uruapan, Napoles seemed to make use of particulars, supplies and artwork that honored the restaurant’s decades-long legacy, Mexican roots and its new house in Little Village, she mentioned.
The Little Village restaurant design pays homage to Carbajal’s Mexican roots and historical past — what Napoles calls “la herencia,” or heritage — which have contributed to the restaurant’s success.
Napoles’ personal publicity to Mexican tradition from an early age and connection to her roots knowledgeable her imaginative and prescient for the restaurant, she mentioned. Whereas she’s the one designer within the studio, she works with greater than a dozen companions, together with architects, designers, builders, artists and materials producers to create distinctive areas.
Structure agency Deconstruct Structure and a couple of dozen native companies helped create every little thing from tile to art work for Carnitas Uruapan’s twenty sixth Road restaurant, Napoles mentioned.
Working with an inside designer is a “large bounce” from the restaurant’s origins, nevertheless it supplied the restaurant a possibility to showcase its decades-long historical past and evolution, mentioned Marcos Carbajal, who now leads the restaurant based by his father, Inocencio “El Güero” Carbajal.
When Inocencio Carbajal opened the primary Carnitas Uruapan in 1975 Pilsen, it didn’t have a design idea. As a substitute, the house owners saved up and relied on shopping for secondhand furnishings whereas hanging up objects that reminded them of life again house, Marcos Carbajal mentioned.
Within the Little Village restaurant, guests get an expertise that celebrates Mexican heritage by means of particulars like a ceiling sculpture in the primary eating room that was created by Chicago firm Canica Reveals.
The sculpture is impressed by colourful ribbons that cling from hats within the Mexican people dance often called La Danza de los Viejitos, Napoles and Carbajal mentioned. It additionally evokes the celebratory and communal spirit typical of Mexican tradition, Napoles mentioned.
A hand-painted map of the state of Michoacan displayed within the restaurant and created by artist Edgar Sosa additionally pays homage to Inocencio Carbajal’s house state in Mexico, Napoles mentioned.
However the tributes to Mexican tradition across the restaurant prolong past the Carbajal household’s roots.
The restaurant is housed within the former La Concordia constructing, a major house for the neighborhood, Napoles mentioned. It is usually inside a neighborhood thought-about the center of the Mexican neighborhood, so the inside design needed to rejoice its native relevance and ties to Mexican and Mexican American tradition.
“The purpose when any individual steps into this, not solely do we wish some nostalgia of what the constructing is, however little notes that remind them of house wherever they’re from,” Napoles mentioned.
A shrine with a picture of the Woman of Guadalupe can be a tribute to the religion of many Mexican households and was impressed by Napoles’ visits to Little Village’s outlets, she mentioned. When she’d go to as a toddler, most of the outlets alongside the bustling industrial hall that’s twenty sixth Road had a shrine dedicated to the non secular idol, which all the time caught her consideration, she mentioned.
The colour palette used within the restaurant — from terracotta bricks to colourful tile — in addition to the furnishings choice, materials and finishes are supposed to create a comfortable and welcoming house that brings again particular reminiscences, Napoles mentioned.
Rebozo and different Mexican materials cowl seating banquettes, floral art work harking back to Mexican artisanal embroidery adorn partitions and tiles like those utilized in Mexican properties are used all through the restaurant.
“It truly is an surprising however welcome honor to be acknowledged for the restaurant’s design,” mentioned Marcos Carbajal.
For Napoles, working with Carnitas Uruapan is a “full-circle second” as she will get to work with the companies that her household visited and beloved, she mentioned.
Her father, Francisco Napoles, labored onerous so the household may store or dine regionally, supported his youngsters’s training and ensured Napoles may go to Mexico and keep linked along with her tradition, she mentioned.
“I’ve all these nice visible reminiscences, publicity to the hospitality business and having the ability to be pleased with my heritage due to him,” she mentioned.
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