Stephen Starr's Latest Features More Foam, Less FOMO
LMNO dining room, from lmnophilly.com.
BY JILLY MacDOWELL | It's easy to gorge on the bright Baja cuisine at LMNO, but the visual feast is just as gorge at the 9-month-old Fishtown destination. I almost passed out at the Dubble Bubble pink breezeblock around the patio; inside, with so much too look at – tropical foliage, checkerboard tabletops, scrumptious unfinished woodgrain, natural light flooding in at every angle, sexy bathrooms (a must), a whole bookstore inside – I was instantly grounded by the Hanna Barbera-esque seat cushions.
Did you ever pull up carpeting to discover an unexpectedly colorful mosaic foam pad underneath? What a shame to conceal its rainbow exuberance! It's called rebond foam, and it's made by collecting scraps from foam production and recycling them by adding liquid polyurethane. Undercover cute *and* sustainable.
Rebond foam is commonly used in motorcycle, snowmobile and tractor seats -- and at LMNO, where it's brilliantly upholstered in clear vinyl on chairs and booths in the skylit dining room. Delineated in multicolored piping, the foam's inherent colors shine through.
The photogenic space, and cushions, are the handiwork of "cultural engineer" and ambiance conjurer Serge Becker, with whom Starr realized a shared vision for the more-than-just-Mexican-street-food venue. Better known items on Becker's CV include creative direction of NYC's Area and other iconic spots with Eric Goode, and artistic direction of the Museum of Sex.
LMNO dining room, from lmnophilly.com.
On the foundation of similarly über-ultra-curated NYC stalwarts Miss Lily's and La Esquina, the Swiss designer's reach has expanded to Jamaica, Dubai and London. Becker's first(?) venue with Starr is as good a pairing as LMNO's coal-roasted oysters & a crisp vinho verde.
LMNO, 1739-1749 N. Front St, Philadelphia, PA 19122.
