Three friends, an architect, an engineer and a chef decided last year to put their respective skills to use and open a restaurant, The Three. After a careful search, they settled on a 900-square foot property at 177 Avenida do Governador Jaime Silverio Marques, in NAPE.
“We took over the place in October last year and opened on March 31 this year, so it was six months for design, renovation, obtaining our licenses and staff training”, architect Kong Wai Keong explains.
There are three distinct sections to the restaurant and a total of 40 seats; 16 from the entrance running through to a small cozy room at the back that seats another 16, and then there’s 8 seats upstairs.
“Our concept for the décor is modern, simple, somewhat modeled on a Korean café style. When designing the space, I wanted to use a mix of materials, a combination of cool and warm, hard and soft”.
Soft orange leatherette-style banquet seating and OSB pressed wood-shaving paneling for behind the cashier and one seating alcove is juxtapositioned with black Sintered stone table tops and white-flecked concrete bases. The small, black steel-framed chairs have PVC seats and rattan backing – underlining the mix of hard-soft, metal-natural feel. The floor, a mix of ‘FUFINI Art Ciment’ a high quality microcement from Spain and SPC wood-texture flooring for easy maintenance, adds to the hard versus soft textures.
The Art Ciment is also used for much of the pale grey walls. Painted wood and steel are employed for other wall sections and the staircase.
The colour scheme mix presents a fun, modern feel and helps distinguish one section from another. Orange and black for the front, and for the end room, bright red PU leather banquet seating, turquoise-blue walls and white stone table tops. The whole back wall is mirrored to help enlarge the sense of space. The walls are paneled up to the dado rail; the vertical-ribbed panel design thoughtfully reflects the horizontal-ribbed backs of the banquet seating.
In keeping with a small space, the walls are uncluttered; downstairs three oversized wall light fixtures are an art installation in themselves. Attention to detail is even given to the service areas with divider section and storage alcove painted in red.
The metal staircase is the same bright red, “factory-painted, a pretty good match with the other red we use”, and the exposed ceiling and 5 HP airconditioning unit is painted in the turquoise-blue. “Instead of white or black which is usually used, I wanted to make it different”, Keong smiles.
The strong red theme continues up the stairs to the third section mezzanine with the red banquet seating and behind, a huge semi-circle wall mirror that helps gives the narrow space a wider feel.
Co-owner and chef Lau Fai Spencer has designed a menu of South Asian dishes. Currently the most popular are the Vietnamese Pho and Hainanese Chicken. There are other delicious items that my friend and I tried: fried squid patties, Tom Yum noodles to name just two.
Spencer and his partners plan to further develop the offering to incorporate new innovative ideas that will be more of a fusion of Asian cuisines. Presentation of each dish is as thoughtful as the restaurant design, with attractive crockery that varies for different dishes.
Open daily from 8am-6pm, as the business develops The Three will open for dinner. Meanwhile take away business is brisk. There are seven staff in total, four in the kitchen and three servers.
Macau-born Keong studied architecture for five years at Huaqiao University in Fujian, from 1997-2002. This was before Macau offered an architecture degree. His first job was with LBA, the Macau-based architecture firm run by Carlotta Bruni and Rui Leao. Fast forward 20 years, he now has his own firm, The Eight, and a team of seven designers.
And what does the future hold for Keong and his foray into the restaurant business? Will there be others?
“Yes, of course, once we’ve got The Three well established then we are excited about the prospect of opening more restaurants. At the moment these would offer the same kind of South Asian fusion cuisine, but who knows, our ideas could change with time.”
As for the state of architecture here in Macau, what are Keong’s thoughts for the future?
“I hope that the authorities will have more confidence in engaging local architects for some of the larger building projects rather than always relying on architects from overseas. There’s a lot of design talent here in Macau and it needs to be better showcased.”
