Meet the Team Designing Philly’s Most Stunning Restaurants

Richard Stokes (left), Lance Saunders, and David Fastiggi at Enswell / Photography by Jason Varney

It was New Year’s Day in 2004 when Richard Stokes, founder of Rittenhouse-based Stokes Architecture + Design, first met Stephen Starr. The two were getting together to discuss the restaurateur’s latest venture: Continental Midtown. Inspired by the Doo Wop style of Wildwood’s Starlux Hotel — the fledgling firm’s first renovation project — Starr wanted the sequel to his Old City diner to evoke the same kind of mid-century, Googie vibe that was making a comeback in the early aughts.

That first collaboration with one of Philly’s largest restaurant groups was a catalyst, says Lance Saunders, a partner at Stokes as well as the firm’s director of design. “Not only did it set Stokes off on the trajectory of restaurant design,” he says, “but by working with Starr Restaurants so early on, we were instantly legitimized in the restaurant community.” Since then, the firm has designed 40 restaurants in Philly (including 17 Starr spots), shaping the city’s dining aesthetic in the process.

The bar at Kalaya

Partners Stokes (senior principal), Saunders, and David Fastiggi (director of architecture) do everything from drawing up the blueprints to choosing the wallpaper to ensuring that the vibe of the space complements the food. They’ve contributed to the bold and moody tone of Provenance; the lofty, Art Deco grandeur that defines Enswell; Starr’s recent $20 million coliseum of Italian cuisine, Borromini; and the sun-drenched, palm-filled oasis that is Defined Hospitality’s Kalaya.

“They are the best in class when it comes to layout and flow of kitchens and dining spaces,” says Greg Root, co-owner of Defined Hospitality. Stokes has worked on every one of the restaurant group’s projects for the past 10 years. “Their expertise and creativity have delivered restaurants for us throughout Philadelphia that are both functional and beautiful.”

Lovers Bar at Friday Saturday Sunday

Saunders, who oversees all of the interior design, says the key to a successful project is working with clients and their teams to flesh out a story. “You’re filtering every design decision you make through that narrative, which gives it intention,” he says. “You can tell the difference between a design that is done with intention and one that just kind of randomly assembles trendy images.”

He draws from numerous influ­ences to tell that story — the history of the building and the restaurateur’s vision and concept, as well as artists he finds personally inspiring, including movie directors like Martin Scorsese and production designers like Jack Fisk (who’s most known for period films like There Will Be Blood and the recent Marty Supreme). “The common theme with all of those artists and designers is their attention to the human scale and the human experience,” he says. “I’m ­really drawn to people who think more in those terms.”

Booth details at Friday Saturday Sunday

When redesigning Chad and Hanna Williams’s Friday Saturday Sunday, for instance, Saunders worked with many of the salvaged elements of the old restaurant and layered them into the new space to “make [it] feel harmonious and lived-in,” he says. Another influence he leaned on in the newly minted Michelin Star restaurant? Wes Anderson. “The set design of The Royal Tenenbaums — there’s a kind of organic, collector sort of nature to those sets,” he says, adding that the quirky director’s affinity for symmetry and patterns plays a part in Friday Saturday Sunday’s overall redesign.

“With restaurants, it’s a kind of theatrical experience,” he explains. “It makes a lot of sense to do things from the perspective of a movie director, curating what the guests are going to see and how they’re going to experience things.” As for the next stage they’re setting? It’s still behind closed curtains. But let’s just say that, when we see it, we’ll be … Starrstruck.

Published as “Fine Designing” in the June 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.