Case Study: The Floor Really Pulls the Room Together

The Challenge: to transform circa 1818 space formerly home to the country's second-ever chartered savings bank into a fine-dining restaurant featuring menu items inspired by 19th century New England culinary methods, particularly live-fire cooking. The Solution: Prior to opening Ledger, a one-of-a-kind  restaurant and bar in the former Salem Savings Bank in downtown Salem, Massachusetts a year ago, chef-owner Matt O’Neil tapped the design team at Assembly Design Studio. He selected the Boston-based firm due to its extensive resume in restaurant design — particularly its work in renovating a 1945 building, once home to an old Family Dollar store, into Capo Restaurant  in South Boston. Renovation of the former  bank building involved  multiple challenges. Not  only did the space feature  the original plaster ceiling,  original brick walls and extremely  tall windows, but it also included a  large safe that the design team would have  to somehow incorporate within…