DETROIT, MI - Selden Standard is a new restaurant on the burgeoning culinary scene in Detroit, owned and operated by Executive Chef Andy Hollyday and Managing Director Evan Hansen. Once vacant and roofless, it is now a contributing anchor in a creative pocket neighborhood - the Cass Corridor. In a previous life, the old brick structure consisted of two former building facades, one a dry cleaner and the other a church.
Hollyday and Hansen join other adventurous hardworking restaurateurs in Detroit, choosing to build a restaurant from an empty building and bringing up a new generation of culinary concepts that thrive on local farms and a sense of community. There to help them execute that concept were designers Tadd Heidgerken and Kristen Smith of Et al. Collaborative, the architecture studio behind other recognized community pillars such as Astro Coffee, Red Bull House of Art and Slows to Go. Selden Standard now has a lean, fresh, understated interior and exterior design. Spaces are intended to reflect the restaurant’s modern take on a seasonal rustic-style cuisine. “The material combination is inspired by the way in which Chef Andy’s cuisine elevates humble ingredients into unique and fresh dishes”, says Kristen of Et al. Collaborative. “The challenge was how to combine a simple a simple material palette, into something alluring that stimulated all the senses.”
The exterior facade is framed by charcoal brick with a natural light cedar trim and wide windows facing the street. As the seasons change, so too does the restaurant’s cedar trimmed exterior with slats that perform in the warmer climates as a screen canopy that opens and breathes fresh air into a patio wing, putting a new spin on street side cafe seating. A leading design element, the cedar slats continue into the interior of the restaurant, drawing you in and outlining six dining room spaces - a spacious reception area, the main dining room, a communal table, a welcoming bar, and the adjacent event dining room and patio seating. The rich and dark wall color palette of the main room combined with the warmth of the cedar wood furniture creates a tailored and minimal feel and highlights the colorful blend of the restaurant’s colorful cuisine.
The adjacent dining room is minimally adorned with light filtering through the operable screen canopy. In the main dining room a mix of blue- charcoal and blue- gray walls, blonde cedar-topped tables, industrial-gray metal chairs, concrete floors, and rows of suspended Edison lights compose the space. A 14-seat communal table stands in the back of the dining room separated by a floor to ceiling metal display and storage. A prominent focal point of the restaurant interior is the open kitchen layout and wood fired pizza oven as well as a wood-fired grill which add a greater sense of community to the dining experience.