Read our review of Brewed by clicking here.
"Oh, wow, that's beautiful," gushed one Brewed patron as she led her party of four toward the eatery's "living room."
This 120-square-foot spot, tucked in the back of the 4,000-square-foot restaurant, is an homage to a bygone era of family get-togethers, set around a painted wood-topped table, with everyone perched on floral-patterned vinyl sofas.
It's the kind of nostalgic setting that warms the hearts of Brewed's primary interior designers, Jana Clark and Dayna Corley, two of the restaurant's eight founding partners. Clark and Corley sought to develop a distinctive interior feel that captures the comfort of a bed-and-breakfast common room -- combined with an adorably dotty grandmother's den.
Beginning in April 2011, Clark and Corley hit the road, often behind the wheel of a big U-Haul, scouring flea markets and import shops across Texas, to find the kind of antiques and "junk-tiques" that would eventually form Brewed's interior.
And if Brewed's Thelma and Louise of design spotted something artful on the side of the road, they grabbed that, too.
"A lot of this stuff came from good old-fashioned Dumpster diving," admits Corley. "We wanted to create a place that seemed immediately familiar to you, and yet presented in a slightly new way."
"We bought our objects based on what made our hearts beat faster," adds Clark, who was a buyer for Neiman Marcus for 16 years and estimates the interior furnishings cost $30,000-$40,000. "We want Brewed's interior furnishings to take our customers to that happy place in their family's past."
That includes some pretty eclectic, if not eccentric, memories. The "living room" features everything from a turquoise hair salon dryer-turned-standing lamp to a vintage record player. There's also a wall filled with albums: Dolly Parton, Styx, Merle Haggard, Dean Martin and the soundtrack to My Fair Lady, just to name a few.
Old farm equipment gears and painted hippy-dippy colors line one room's walls. A mattress is suspended from one wall, with its springs holding old pictures, dry-cleaning receipts and medals. Old tennis rackets have been turned into mirrors. And rickety grocery carts now serve as Brewed's portable bussing stations.
"We have a mural on one of our main walls and it's called Resting Hour," says Clark. "And that pretty much sums up what we want Brewed to convey: that restful place where people can come together, eat, drink, play games, in a fun atmosphere and not feel rushed."
"With our design," adds Corley, "we wanted to create a really cool place for people of all ages to come and just feel like they could hang out -- as if they were meeting on our communal front porch."
