Modern Dining with Natural Warmth

Reposado Restaurant

Architect: Cass Calder Smith
Client: Restaurants from Scratch
Vertical: Hospitality
Location: San Mateo, California

Product: Ekoa in True
Installation: Ceiling inset & fabricated panels
Scale: 890 SF

Impact

CO2 sequestered

equivalent annual carbon uptake

The design challenge

Reposado brings a contemporary approach to Mexican dining, with a menu built around fresh ingredients, creative interpretations, and an extensive tequila and cocktail menu. The layered interior follows suit, pairing sleek architectural lines with a mix of natural materials, including wood, stone, metal, leather, and fabric in warm, earthy tones.

In a busy restaurant, those visual elements also need to hold up to heavy use. The ceiling offered an opportunity to introduce another biophilic material layer into the overall aesthetic — one that could bring warmth and character while standing up to the demands of a vibrant hospitality environment.

Material solution

Ekoa in True adds a rich, natural surface directly above the bar, where inset lighting casts an inviting glow across the flax grain. Set into the ceiling, the material creates a defined visual moment overhead and a counterpoint to the swirled stone surface of the long bar below it.

The movement of the pattern in the stone bar and the organic flax grain of Ekoa complement each other, adding depth to a space already full of visual energy.

Experience in the space

The use of Ekoa continues on the other end of the restaurant, in a separate dining area designed to flex between everyday use and private events. Here, panels fabricated with Ekoa are mounted above the seating area. The Ekoa frames diagonally inset fabric-covered acoustic pieces, creating a layered ceiling detail that helps define the space within the restaurant.

By day, the flax-grain panels catch the natural light to give the bar and side dining ceilings an airy, organic texture that softens the restaurant’s modern architectural lines. At night, the same ceilings absorb the warm glow of mounted lighting, transforming the zoned areas into cozy micro-atmospheres that feel like defined spaces in the larger, more energetic restaurant.

Sustainability & healthy interiors

Made from rapidly renewable flax and plant-based resins, Ekoa brings a different material story to a highly social space. It’s Red List Free, Clean Air GOLD certified, and ultra-low VOC, all with verified environmental data through its EPD.

Across the 890-square-foot installations, the flax used in the Ekoa sequesters 4,990 kg of carbon, equivalent to the annual carbon uptake of 199 trees.

Durability & performance

Restaurants ask a lot of their interiors. Ekoa brings impact, scratch, and stain resistance to the design, making it well suited to a space with constant activity, frequent cleaning, and daily wear.

Its durable surface allows the design to extend beyond purely decorative applications, standing up to various elements in the space, while its thin sheet format supports the precise fabrication and detailing required for custom ceiling features.

Installation & detailing

Ekoa was fabricated into two distinct ceiling applications: a shaped inset above the bar and a custom panel surrounding the acoustic elements in the secondary dining area. The material accommodates integrated lighting and precise detailing while maintaining the distinctive flax grain across each application.

Outcome

In a sophisticated restaurant designed around layers of color, texture, and material, Ekoa adds another dimension that sets the tone overhead. True brings warmth, depth, and a distinctly natural fiber grain to the ceiling — while delivering the durability needed for a busy space designed to make patrons feel right at home.