À Côté

In 2005, I missed the bus and hitchhiked to my first date with Dinesh at À Côté, a dark, moody French restaurant on Rockridge Avenue. The lighting was so dim that for the next 15 years of special nights out, I believed our favorite off-menu cocktail — a cucumber gin drink called the Pepino — was green. Years later, dining there in daylight, I learned it was actually pink. Our favorite table was a corner booth tucked into an arched nook. It was almost always taken, which made the rare nights we sat there feel even more intimate. In 2020, À Côté built a temporary outdoor dining structure that remained a favorite seating request well beyond the pandemic, though the structure itself had begun to wear thin. Our design reimagines the parklet with the same cozy, moody romance that has always defined the restaurant’s interior. Curved corners form two new nooks enveloped in foliage. Black metal tables, chairs, and planters provide a quiet, atmospheric backdrop for candlelight and soft overhead sparkle. Warm wood frames the space, while translucent Polygal walls diffuse the city lights. Dense planting bookends the structure, buffering approaching headlights to create a more intimate dining experience.