DEX’s newest Santa Monica restaurant, Pono Burger, is officially open!  With the main dining area housed inside an historic Quonset Hut and the ordering counter inside the adjacent building, DEX enjoyed having two separate spaces to work inside.

For the dining area inside the Quonset Hut, DEX wanted to use the history of the quonset huts, which were built to be affordable and utilitarian, as the cornerstone of its modest palette.  Inside the Hut, seating is divided into two zones, one zone is composed of built-in banquettes to offer a more structured and standard dining experience, while the other zone is made of loose, informal seating that is lounge-like and casual.  The overall feel of space has a residential level of comfort, but includes unexpected pops of color and design elements.  The material palette includes galvanized and powdercoated metal, walnut, burlap ceiling panels, and painted and upholstered elements in varying shades of gray-greens and gray-blues.

Inside the adjacent building, which contains the Ordering Counter, DEX brought in rustic and industrial elements like heavy timber beams, butcherblock countertops, and a metal shroud around the cooking hoods to merge the newly constructed space with the Quonset Hut.  To reinforce Pono’s farm-to-table concept, DEX designed a non-linear working kitchen to bring customers as close to their food as possible.  DEX also designed a wood totem feature that showcases daily specials and houses stacked logs.  The display reinforces the idea that wood is a finite resource because throughout the day the wood pile grows smaller and smaller as the cooks pull logs out to keep the grill going

Enjoy a sneak peak of final photos to come!