Restaurant Concept: Gigi’s
This Mother’s Day, I thought it’d be fitting to share something my mother and I built this year. Together, we developed this restaurant concept for a former employer, and they completely ignored it. Even if the concept never sees the light of day, it’s too good not to be shared with the world. Aspects of my mother’s childhood stories as well as stories from growing up in her kitchen are incorporated into this concept deck.
Named for my mother, “Gigi” is the name she chose for herself upon becoming a grandmother. I developed the menu over conversations with her and her childhood best friend, whose mother taught them both to cook in her home kitchen on Kansas City’s North End.
My mother’s mother died when she was 11. Thrust into the role of caretaker for her younger siblings, she learned to cook from the Italian ladies in the neighborhood. The first meal she made for my father, the meal she still makes for him every year on his birthday was her famed “basta with the sugu,” featuring her homemade spaghetti sauce with meatballs.
If someone refers to pasta sauce as “sugu,” their heritage can be traced to the old Sicilian language, before Mussolini standardized Italian as the taught language across Sicily. “Sugo” suggests a post-Mussolini influence. “Sugu” is how I came to learn what some Italian families call “sugo” and others call “gravy.” Kansas City Italians have their own way of doing things, best exemplified in the menu at Gigi’s.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.
Click here for the deck and here for the concept menu which includes everything from a Glossary of Terms…
To images of inspiring interiors and exteriors…
To an explanation of some of the spaces…
To uniforms…
and of course, to the food and drinks…
If you or someone you know would be interested in learning more or be interested in bringing my mother’s concept to life, please reach out. If you’d be interested in having a conversation with me about my abilities as a concept designer of restaurants, retail, product development… of businesses of all kinds, please feel free to reach out via the contact form.
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST INSPIRED BY GIGI’S
CLICK HERE FOR THE CONCEPT DECK AND HERE FOR THE CONCEPT MENU.
