The roof is on fire!

For just about any successful restaurant, the business mantra for success is usually location, location, location. However, if you’re hoping to include a world-class lounge in the package, there had better be superior sound, video and interior design, too. San Diego club owner Matt Spencer was already familiar with this formula as owner of successful downtown restaurant/nightclub Aubergine. So, by the time he and his partners signed the deed on the beautiful Pacific Beachfront property where the Firehouse American Eatery And Lounge now stands, they knew exactly what they wanted.

“Firehouse is more of a restaurant/lounge: I didn’t want, like, the two-giant-speakers kind of concept. I wanted kind of an all-over warmer sound,” says Spencer. “I wanted [a system] that was kind of user-friendly, [so] that anyone could look at this little flat screen and choose the TV or choose music, as opposed to having to run all over the place. I just wanted a very holistic thing.”

A nightclub with landscaping.

Not [Too] Literal
Taking its cue from the Pacific Beach Firehouse located right next door, the owners of Firehouse intended to replace the wood-shingled restaurant/deli on the premises with a sleek, modern structure, with an interior that hinted at the firehouse theme without necessarily emulating it. “From the very beginning, it was gonna be called the Firehouse, but the first thing that came out of their mouth was, ‘We don’t want it to be a cliché, where you have stainless steel poles, firehouse elements in it. We just wanted that clean, simple hint or suggestion of a firehouse,’” recalls chief designer Tina Marie Koch of Design Perspectives. “So, we did some research on historic fire stations as well as contemporary fire stations, and then selected from the basic elements from each. Like, you’d find a lot of wood floors in the old historic fire stations. And then in some of the new contemporary fire stations, [you’d find] very simple, clean lines, because a lot of times, the firehouses have to be kept very simple and bare. They don’t have a big budget for implementing a grand design.”

This less-is-more aesthetic is carried through from the simple, planar exterior surfaces to the warm, ruddy interiors of the ground floor. Pendant lights hang over the dark granite surface of the bar, and recessed LEDs and strip lighting help give the interior the dual-use function it needs to serve as both a restaurant and a lounge. “The heart of everything here was just keeping it really simple and clean looking, which to us translated with a fresh look,” says Koch, “so when people came in, depending on whether it was the [restaurant or the] lounge atmosphere, certain elements would make it feel more like a lounge, because of the lighting that we did in the space. She also points out recently added charcoal wall coverings that are removed to add to the nighttime lounge ambiance. “That’s really important in the food service and the lounge industry, to make people feel like every time they come into the restaurant, there’s something new and fresh, so they don’t get bored.”

As for audio, Matt Rapoza of Anderson Audio Visual (andersonav.com) installed 16 Tannoy CMS601 Dual Concentric speakers across the ceiling. Rounding out the low end in this room are four Tannoy 110 SR in-wall subwoofers, created for sheet rock installations: two in the ceiling and two flushmounted in the walls. Plus, five 42-inch LG Electronics M4201C-BA High Definition LCD monitors are suspended from the ceiling, projecting anything from custommade drink special advertisements to the NFL Sunday football matches regularly featured during Sunday brunches. The audio and video systems for both this section as well as the roof area are matrixed into an AMX NXD-CV7 seven-inch Modero Wall/Flush Mount touchpanel, which can preview and then rout any image or sound stream to any area of the building the user wishes. For Spencer, the AMX control panel stands out as his favorite single element of the system. “That’s just heaven, to be able to have access to all your inputs and be able to move things around, as opposed to dealing with a big, complicated soundboard, which I do at Aubergine,” he says.

At Firehouse, the DJ system is portable.

Champagne & A Saltine
Upstairs, the straight, clean aesthetic continues with glass walls that only partially shield patrons from the elements upstairs. Here, patrons are introduced to two of Firehouse’s most striking design features: the central fire pit, and the illuminated red umbrellas that both cover the tables and line the perimeter of the roof. According to Koch, the fire pit handily achieves two ends: “We thought it would work perfectly with it both being a beach location, as well as fitting the firehouse concept, [making] the fire the center of the upstairs bar area and then having it as a mingling point where people can sit around. It can really kind of draw groups of people together, [giving the roof] kind of a see-and-be-seen feel.”

As for the custom-made umbrellas, Spencer initially modified the idea from a cheaper variation on the concept he saw in Bali as a guest at his business partner’s wedding. Design Perspectives designed and created a custom umbrella that allowed for electricity cable to come up through the roof. “[The contractors] put J-boxes in there so the wire actually goes up through these really nice umbrellas and mounts on the umbrellas and shines up into the umbrella. So you get this real warmth, and it’s obviously adjustable, so you get light everywhere,” says Spencer.

As for audio and video on the roof, four LG M4201C-BA monitors round out the video for upstairs, and six Tannoy Di8DCt Weather Resistant surfacemount speakers - outdoor boxes especially created to withstand the elements of Firehouse’s beachfront setting - aim carefully towards the roof, mounted from the section of the floor where patrons enter as well as the roof of the bar. Neither the ground floor nor the roof has a dedicated DJ booth, but XLR auxiliary plates in the wall make connecting a DJ mixer up to either sound system a breeze. Both Spencer and installer Rapoza mention that the upstairs as well as the downstairs systems have enough power to pass for a nightclub, but care was taken not to disturb the neighbors. ”We’re trying to be directional because there’s a hotel nearby and they don’t necessarily wanna hear loud, loud music at night,” Rapoza says. “But it still gets loud up there.”

Since its opening, Firehouse has done brisk business with its continental menu, combining upscale cocktails with stylishly prepared comfort food, not to mention a “secret menu” featuring entrees like the Nicole Richie (champagne and a Saltine). While Spencer intends to integrate a multiple CD player soon, Rapoza feels the overall system is the equal of any dedicated club in the city. “To be honest, we put a lot of forethought into this place,” he says. “They can’t even get to the top end of what they have in there without having the police show up. So they’ve got more power than they need. They can probably run a small nightclub room just off the system that they have in there.”

www.firehousepb.com

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