| Located in the
W Hotel in Victory Park, Craft Restaurant is chef Tom Colicchio’s
first restaurant in Dallas, Texas. The award-winning architectural
design of Bentel & Bentel was inspired by the original
Craft in New York and features a two-story steel-and-glass
wine cabinet and signature glowing lights. Brad Oldham joined
the design and manufacturing team to create the custom wine-storage
system, bronze columns, lights and more.
The primary engineering and manufacturing challenge
for Oldham was the two-story wine-storage system, which needed
to be consistent with the design and function of the one in
New York, yet fit the restaurant in Dallas. Once the custom
pieces (noted below) were made, significant retro-fitting
was required, since the measurements on the plans were not
to the final restaurant specs.
• Two-story glass and steel custom wine
rack/storage system, which included LED illumination on a
low-voltage system so not to warm the wine
• Seven hand-hammered bronze columns made by laying
hand-crushed lava rock and quartz rock onto bronze sheets
laid over wood (to allow the metal to take the imprint), then
hand-rubbed to an antique finish
• Seventy custom lighting columns (plexitube) to line
the booths
• Signage from 3/8-inch bronze calibrated on rechargeable
batteries because there was no access to exterior power where
the sign needed to be
• 9-foot steel front doors with bronze mesh
• Bronze textures and custom finish throughout the entire
restaurant
Craft Dallas has received rave reviews for the
seasonal, regional, esoteric and premium ingredients that
come out of his kitchen, highlighted by the restaurant’s
warm interior design.
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