Takoi, Detroit – USA

Takoi is an exercise in transforming an obsolete service garage into an urban restaurant.TAKOI, formerly KATOI, began as a food truck in 2014, evolved into an Ann Arbor pop-up,and landed as a proper restaurant at 2520 michigan avenue detroit in march of 2016.After being open for 11 months, KATOI was brought back down to earth when it was subjected to arson in february 2017.The day after the fire, the rebuild began, and we opened as TAKOI exactly six months later in august 2017.The dining room aspired to: unify everyone under one experience, seat guests low to the ground to embrace the space, and highlight the cuisine and drinks while maintaining a visual connection between guest and staff. The result was a dining “Pan” where the architecture ends at table height. Studies also showed that booths were 30% more efficient than traditional seating.