les fondus

Paris, France

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les fondus

Paris, France

Firm

studiobravo

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Restaurant

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2025

SIZE

10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

BUDGET

$500K - 1M

Les Fondus de la Raclette, located right in the heart of the Opera district, is more than just a restaurant: it offers an immersion into the world of the mountains—with all its ruggedness and contrasts—providing a thoughtful and vibrant dining experience. Starting with a narrow, dark space marked by a history of successive renovations, the challenge was twofold: to bring this dilapidated space up to code while infusing it with the spirit of the Alps. The concept revolves around timelessness and the evocation of the mountains in all their dimensions: summer and winter, sun and snow, rock and vegetation, interior and exterior. Each material was chosen to tell a story: the larch wood cladding and the green marble flooring come directly from the Alps and visually embody the region’s character; the stainless steel cladding draws inspiration from high-mountain refuges; and the textured white plaster evokes snow.
The space was conceived as a sensory journey, where one moves from the intimacy of the wooden alcoves to the openness of the “Grand Air” space, treated as an outdoor area. The bench seats inspired by chairlifts and the sky-blue ceiling recall Alpine landscapes, while the exposed technical elements—such as air conditioning, electrical systems, and ventilation—blend naturally into the whole, much like ski lifts that dominate the landscape.
The goal is to move beyond the cliché of the “mountain chalet restaurant” and offer a contemporary experience, where wood, stone, and metal interact with touches of green and blue to evoke both cozy interiors and a sweeping horizon. Every detail, from the raw materials to the lighting, serves to enrich the customer experience, turning a meal into much more than just a meal: a getaway.

Cheese lovers don’t just come to enjoy a raclette, but to experience, for the duration of a meal, the feeling of being in a mountain refuge or on a high-altitude hike.