Interior Dialogue

Wine and dine like hepcats at classic '60s Belmont

By the time I reached the hostess stand at Austin's newest restaurant and bar, the Belmont, I had a case of déjà vu. The Belmont looks and feels like a long-forgotten place that was rediscovered and painstakingly remodeled to its former glory.

The sprawling, nearly 14,000-square-foot "classic American restaurant and bar" at 305 W. Sixth St. is the latest playground for Austin's coolest cats and kittens to see and be seen. And the interior is pure eye candy.

Bret Brookshire
FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN

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The Belmont's retro-cool Dakota Lounge.

Bret Brookshire
FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN

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The Belmont's front door oozes '60s style.

Bret Brookshire
FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN

(enlarge photo)

The Belmont is perched in the heart of busy Sixth Street, but you'd never know it from its retro, peaceful ambience.

Matt Luckie and Daryl Kunik have cooked up a space with six rooms for eating, drinking and catching live music. Luckie and Kunik together brought us several bars with high-concept interiors, including Hi-Lo, Betsy's Bar and Red Fez. Separately, they did the Lavaca Street Bar and Lucky Lounge (Luckie) and Uchi (Kunik).

As they have in the past, Luckie and Kunik teamed up with local designers Joel Mozersky (who designs interiors) and Michael Hsu (who is a building designer) to bring Austin another cool spot. Mozersky is known for his retail and entertainment venue interiors, including in recent years the Peacock and Bird's Barbershop. Hsu's building design work can be seen at the Amy's Ice Cream headquarters, Mercury Hall in South Austin and Fino restaurant.

About a month ago, Mozersky gave me an preview of the Belmont. The space was still under construction, but through the dust and boxes, the retro interior was beginning to take shape. Seeing an unfinished interior always reminds me of Michelangelo's slave sculptures and the way the forms seem to be emerging from or pushing through the marble. Needless to say, I jumped when offered the chance for a private tour of the finished space with Mozersky and Hsu.

The two say their inspiration for the Belmont is both 1960s-era Vegas and Palm Springs. The main dining room features alligator green armchairs with biscuit tufting, vintage (and vintage-looking) Lucite chandeliers and artwork. Coffered ceilings are painted bronze. Spacious horseshoe-shaped booths with stained poplar dividers give the illusion of privacy, but still allow their occupants a view of the open room.

"For both of us, the goal was to make it seem like it has always been here," says Mozersky.

Most of the space was built in the late 1950s, which was the inspiration for the retro design. But the Dakota Lounge part of the building is 100 years old, says Hsu, owner of Michael Hsu Design Office. He mentions that the area used to be the Harrison-Pearson Real Estate Co. offices.

It's not hard to imagine the Rat Pack puffing on cigars and clinking glasses of bourbon on the rocks in the back booth of the bar that flanks the dining room. Black paneled walls — some inlaid with smoky mirrors; shiny black lacquer tabletops edged in brass and deep burgundy bar stools that hug the sitter at the shoulders have a certain bachelor-pad appeal and invite patrons to stay awhile.

"It's a little tongue-in-cheek," Hsu says.

In the back of the dining area is the Carlyle Room. Brushed-gold wallpaper, a collage of silhouettes from Mercury Home Design (in the Second Street district) and an enormous round Empire basket chandelier in the center of the ceiling distinguish this room from the rest of the dining room. A heavy gold fabric curtain can be closed for private parties, but the area is otherwise used as an extension of the main dining room.

"This room to me is like an Italian restaurant where you'd have dined with your family," Mozersky says. "I would have ordered a Roy Rogers."

Upstairs offers a choice between the Imperial Room, adorned with pool tables, Chinoiserie gold and black wallpaper with bird and flower motifs and scenes of Asian life and a red lacquer ceiling and carpet, or the Palm Terrace.

If being inside the Belmont is like being at a 1960s supper club, outside is like a vacation in Palm Springs. Whether you're kicking back on the lime green chaise lounge or sipping a martini at one of the wrought iron tables, this area offers a look at the Austin skyline and a bird's-eye view of the 25-foot palm trees that decorate the downstairs patio.

The patio to the right of the main dining room has a bar, seating area, stage and "game portal" for washers, bocce and other sports that can be pursued with cocktail in hand. Banana trees, a wooden footbridge and a bamboo wall add to the subtropical ambience.

"It does not feel like you are on Sixth Street in Austin," Mozersky says.

Even if "I've Got You Under My Skin" isn't floating through the air and patrons can't actually light up a Cuban cigar inside, walking through the rooms at the Belmont feels like stepping into a scene from the original "Ocean's Eleven" (the 1960s version). You half-expect Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford to show up.

Sit back, order a glass of scotch, neat, and relax, baby.

mspencer@statesman.com; 912-2519