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Original Joe’s Walnut Creek
Original Joe’s Walnut Creek
South Main Street, Walnut Creek, CA, United States
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Other Projects by Arcanum Architecture
Original Joe’s Walnut Creek
South Main Street, Walnut Creek, CA, United States
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2025
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
BUDGET
Undisclosed
Original Joe’s Walnut Creek represents the newest chapter in a long-storied Bay Area institution. The legacy began in 1937, when founder Tony Rodin, a young Croatian immigrant, opened a modest 14-stool counter in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Tony’s vision for the brand was rooted in family, generosity, and warm hospitality – a place where anyone and everyone could feel at home. Over the next 70 years, Tony would set the stage for this culinary landmark, with his exhibition-style counter remaining at the heart and becoming an iconic defining element of the brand. When the restaurant was destroyed by a fire in 2007, grandchildren and third-generation stewards, John and Elena Duggan, chose not only to carry on the brand’s legacy, but to thoughtfully evolve it. With Elena at the creative helm, she enlisted Arcanum Architecture to help bring her vision to life – modernizing the 70-year-old institution while preserving the elements that define Original Joe’s identity. Together they shaped a design language that carries the brand confidently into its next era. Thirteen years later, Walnut Creek is the third Original Joe’s that Arcanum has collaborated with the family on, following San Francisco and Daly City, and it represents the most current expression of the concept today.
The design honors the core elements that define Original Joe’s while reinterpreting them through a contemporary lens. The restaurant maintains its signature counter seating at the exhibition-style cook line, booth arrangements, and a glass back bar that provides a refined visual connection between the bar and dining room, offering light and movement while allowing each space to maintain its own distinct energy. For Walnut Creek, Elena Duggan, the Owner/Designer for the Original Joe’s brand, guided the project toward a warmer, less masculine palette with a character distinct from the North Beach and Westlake locations. This approach reflects both her personal vision and the climatic and cultural qualities of Walnut Creek, oriented to fully embrace the region’s warmer weather.
A sense of continuity with the original 1937 restaurant remains central to the design ethos. Over the years, salvaged materials and signage — including the original 1937 sign from the Taylor Street location, which was restored and installed in the bar, have been incorporated into each new project to preserve tangible pieces of the restaurant’s history. At Walnut Creek, this lineage is expressed through classic shiplap siding reimagined in a soft green finish, along with curated artwork and material choices that acknowledge the past while embracing a fashion-forward, modern identity.
Color and materiality play a defining role in the interiors of Walnut Creek. Green is the predominant theme, evident in tufted booths, stained wood siding, green-and-white marble flooring, and various custom finishes. Red chairs provide contrast, and dark walnut surfaces balance the palette. Many of these colors were selected directly from specific objects that inspired Elena, including the green of an olive or the red of a pimento, which required custom fabric matching and finish development. The Walnut Creek location also introduces marble at both the bar and the cook line. This is a unique, more elevated gesture compared to the wood-driven bars in earlier restaurants, signaling a shift toward a more polished, modern interpretation of Original Joe’s identity.
Lighting reinforces this elevated character. Custom chandeliers in an all-brass finish rather than the black-and-brass combination used previously. Additional sconces and large lamps were sourced specifically to contribute warmth, consistency, and a softly glamorous ambiance throughout the dining room.
The spatial experience maintains the brand’s established principles. The bar is intentionally separated from the dining room to preserve its high-energy atmosphere, yet the glassed-in opening at the back bar provides a visual connection that adds animation and light to the dining room. A fireplace has long served as a signature element of every Original Joe’s design, anchoring each space with warmth and tradition. Positioned at the window near the entry, it creates an immediate focal point and adds a sense of comfort the moment guests arrive.
The dining room retains all the classic Original Joe’s components, including the exhibition cook line, charbroiler, counter seating, and a carefully composed rhythm of booths and tables. Above it, a slatted ceiling conceals acoustic treatments, mechanical equipment, and lighting. This system, used successfully in several Original Joe’s projects, delivers an ideal balance between vibrant atmosphere and conversational clarity. The restaurant is intentionally energetic, but guests can still comfortably hear one another across the table.
Walnut Creek’s climate enabled the significant expansion of outdoor dining. The restaurant offers 92 outdoor seats in addition to its 226 indoor seats, distributed across three distinct patios totaling 2,600+ square feet. These outdoor areas provide a layered dining experience unlike any other Original Joe’s locations. The patio connected to the private dining room serves as an intimate extension of that space. The patio, accessed through the bar, features a fire feature, lounge seating, heating, fans, and a trellis that allows year-round use. The largest patio wraps from the front to the back of the restaurant and incorporates a water feature, retractable awnings, string lighting, and generous landscaping. Together, these patios establish the restaurant as the most outdoor-oriented of the Original Joe’s locations and reinforce its connection to Walnut Creek’s warm climate and active street life.
The exterior received a complete transformation as part of the project. The main entry was relocated to face the street, the building was repainted in a moody warm gray tone, new signage was added, and lush landscaping was integrated throughout the site. An outdoor seating area near the entry provides overflow capacity and enhances the restaurant’s presence along the sidewalk.
Original Joe’s Walnut Creek brings together history, family, and forward-looking design. It continues a lineage that began with the innovative counter dining of 1937 and has been carried forward through decades of tradition and reinvention. Working in close collaboration with John and Elena Duggan, Arcanum Architecture has helped execute Elena’s vision–shaping a design language that honors the restaurant’s roots while embracing its future. Warm, high energy, crafted, and unmistakably contemporary, the Walnut Creek location stands as a new landmark in the Original Joe’s story and a confident expression of where the legacy is headed next.
The design honors the core elements that define Original Joe’s while reinterpreting them through a contemporary lens. The restaurant maintains its signature counter seating at the exhibition-style cook line, booth arrangements, and a glass back bar that provides a refined visual connection between the bar and dining room, offering light and movement while allowing each space to maintain its own distinct energy. For Walnut Creek, Elena Duggan, the Owner/Designer for the Original Joe’s brand, guided the project toward a warmer, less masculine palette with a character distinct from the North Beach and Westlake locations. This approach reflects both her personal vision and the climatic and cultural qualities of Walnut Creek, oriented to fully embrace the region’s warmer weather.
A sense of continuity with the original 1937 restaurant remains central to the design ethos. Over the years, salvaged materials and signage — including the original 1937 sign from the Taylor Street location, which was restored and installed in the bar, have been incorporated into each new project to preserve tangible pieces of the restaurant’s history. At Walnut Creek, this lineage is expressed through classic shiplap siding reimagined in a soft green finish, along with curated artwork and material choices that acknowledge the past while embracing a fashion-forward, modern identity.
Color and materiality play a defining role in the interiors of Walnut Creek. Green is the predominant theme, evident in tufted booths, stained wood siding, green-and-white marble flooring, and various custom finishes. Red chairs provide contrast, and dark walnut surfaces balance the palette. Many of these colors were selected directly from specific objects that inspired Elena, including the green of an olive or the red of a pimento, which required custom fabric matching and finish development. The Walnut Creek location also introduces marble at both the bar and the cook line. This is a unique, more elevated gesture compared to the wood-driven bars in earlier restaurants, signaling a shift toward a more polished, modern interpretation of Original Joe’s identity.
Lighting reinforces this elevated character. Custom chandeliers in an all-brass finish rather than the black-and-brass combination used previously. Additional sconces and large lamps were sourced specifically to contribute warmth, consistency, and a softly glamorous ambiance throughout the dining room.
The spatial experience maintains the brand’s established principles. The bar is intentionally separated from the dining room to preserve its high-energy atmosphere, yet the glassed-in opening at the back bar provides a visual connection that adds animation and light to the dining room. A fireplace has long served as a signature element of every Original Joe’s design, anchoring each space with warmth and tradition. Positioned at the window near the entry, it creates an immediate focal point and adds a sense of comfort the moment guests arrive.
The dining room retains all the classic Original Joe’s components, including the exhibition cook line, charbroiler, counter seating, and a carefully composed rhythm of booths and tables. Above it, a slatted ceiling conceals acoustic treatments, mechanical equipment, and lighting. This system, used successfully in several Original Joe’s projects, delivers an ideal balance between vibrant atmosphere and conversational clarity. The restaurant is intentionally energetic, but guests can still comfortably hear one another across the table.
Walnut Creek’s climate enabled the significant expansion of outdoor dining. The restaurant offers 92 outdoor seats in addition to its 226 indoor seats, distributed across three distinct patios totaling 2,600+ square feet. These outdoor areas provide a layered dining experience unlike any other Original Joe’s locations. The patio connected to the private dining room serves as an intimate extension of that space. The patio, accessed through the bar, features a fire feature, lounge seating, heating, fans, and a trellis that allows year-round use. The largest patio wraps from the front to the back of the restaurant and incorporates a water feature, retractable awnings, string lighting, and generous landscaping. Together, these patios establish the restaurant as the most outdoor-oriented of the Original Joe’s locations and reinforce its connection to Walnut Creek’s warm climate and active street life.
The exterior received a complete transformation as part of the project. The main entry was relocated to face the street, the building was repainted in a moody warm gray tone, new signage was added, and lush landscaping was integrated throughout the site. An outdoor seating area near the entry provides overflow capacity and enhances the restaurant’s presence along the sidewalk.
Original Joe’s Walnut Creek brings together history, family, and forward-looking design. It continues a lineage that began with the innovative counter dining of 1937 and has been carried forward through decades of tradition and reinvention. Working in close collaboration with John and Elena Duggan, Arcanum Architecture has helped execute Elena’s vision–shaping a design language that honors the restaurant’s roots while embracing its future. Warm, high energy, crafted, and unmistakably contemporary, the Walnut Creek location stands as a new landmark in the Original Joe’s story and a confident expression of where the legacy is headed next.
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