Ámbar Restaurante

El Paso, TX

Award Winning Casual Dining Design

Built in 1930, the recently rehabilitated Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park was the first high-rise in Conrad Hilton’s hotel empire and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For the hotel’s new casual dining restaurant Ambar we created a palette of rich walnut wood, jewel-tone velvet and mohair fabrics, warm brass metals and leather for interior design of the bar and restaurant. Contemporary furnishings blend luxury with rough-hewn casual elegance. Custom light fixtures borrow details from original lighting, while Mexican hand-tooled leather panels wrap columns and kitchen counters, evoking the distinct spirit of the place. We also reinstated the original double-height atrium, which had been capped in a previous renovation, to bring back the grand entrance as the heart of the building. The focal point of the atrium is the dramatic back bar, rising 40 feet high and displaying one of Texas’ largest tequila collections behind a sheath of amber glass and polished stainless steel. A new staircase is partially concealed behind the bar, providing access to the wall of tequila, and secretly connecting the bar and restaurant down to a cellar-like private dining space located in the former boiler rooms.

Ambar won Boutique Design's 2021 Gold Key Award for Best Restaurant, Casual Dining Design.

What Others Are Saying

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