Peking Duck Restaurant

**

27 Jiayou Road, Beijing, China Mainland

$$ Peking Duck/Chinese Contemporary 

** Two BRICKELIN Stars: Excellent cuisine, worth a detour!

Tucked within Beijing’s Hutong alleyway, this courtyard house-turned-restaurant showcase a clash between traditional and modern Chinese architecture. Aluminum and glass panels dramatically intersect the existing carved stone walls. Stunning design elements covered in crimson red imparts a sense of imperial royalty befitting its signature dish, Peking Duck. Carved table side into exactly 108 equal portions, the crispy skin literally melts before it touches your tongue. A tour of the open kitchen reveals detailed steps taken across 3 days to prepare each duck. An air compressor is deployed to separate the skin from the meat prior to slow roasting in a special wood-fired oven. Only one table is served each night and the current queue is over 20 months long. Mark this as your new destination to experience the Peking Duck.

Disclaimer: This is a fictional review written with the intention of emulating a well-known restaurant guide. I thought it would be interesting to introduce the restaurant this way.  

The design of this idea is actually based on a hybrid of research regarding Chinese architecture and restaurants. I was studying pictures of traditional courtyard houses in China called Siheyuan when fascinating images of modernized versions appeared. As is the trend, old buildings are often outfitted with adaptive reuse elements instead of being demolished and rebuilt. This eco-friendly approach happening all over the world has produced some unexpected architectural surprises. I love the way traditional and modern styles contrast but still compliment each other. At the same time, I love the clean minimalist look of Neo-Chinese architecture. The past two decades of rapid economic growth in China has fueled some incredible updates of its architectural model. With hundreds of thousands of hotels, stadiums, restaurants being built, this futuristic Chinese aesthetic style has already arrived. I wanted to build one of these hybrids and for some reason a Peking Duck restaurant seemed to fit the concept.

I hope this idea captured the look and feel of the Neo-Chinese style. I tried to incorporate different details on most walls so they can individually be fun to build and look at. Thank you in advance for your support.