Beauty in the Heart of Beholder
We love things that shake up our work week. Things that excite us, that challenge us, that makes today different from the days before. We love when jobs come along that intrigue us and keep us on our toes.
Over the years, as we have worked closely with the team at One10, the architecture firm has brought us many of these kinds of jobs. We’ve photographed the Public Defenders office with sliding barn doors and bright red accents as well as One10’s own corporate office complete with a pool table and custom brewed beer tap (see more of that blog here). It’s never a dull day when One10 comes calling!
This particular project was to photograph a new restaurant concept, Beholder. Chef and co-owner Jonathan Brooks just opened the restaurant in June, but has already been named one of the Top 100 Wine Restaurants of 2018—thanks to the sommelier and co-owner Josh Mazanowski. In an interview with IndyStar, Brooks mentions that his previous restaurant, Milktooth, shares a lot of similarities with Beholder, but is completely different from approach to location; and that’s just what they want. Brooks says he wants to come into contact with every sort of person in every stage of life, and a unique location allows for new interactions.
In line with this philosophy, Beholder has indeed drawn in an eclectic crowd in its first few months of operations to partake in their refined menu, which includes quail, grilled octopus, and a variety of inspired food combinations. Most would not consider Indianapolis a culinary scene, but Beholder proves that the discerning palate can find Michelin Star quality food right around the corner. Although the food is intriguing, you might be asking, how does One10 fit into all this?
Well, the restaurant’s building originally housed a 1950s auto repair shop. One 10 was hired to update the exterior to a more modern façade while redesigning the interior to fit both the needs of a restaurant and create the ambience the owners had in mind. One10’s team brought in new colors and textures to the dining areas while making sure that the character of the building still shined through. The way that One10 completed this adaptive reuse project made sure to fulfill their clients’ vision for what the Beholder brand would stand for.
The most challenging part of this project photographically was definitely the lighting. With major textures of the building being so important to capture and retain the character of the space our normal strobe lights would have overpowered the feel of the restaurant. During the ever important location scout, it was decided to shoot both at dusk (so there was some lighting coming through the windows) and also at night as the restaurant was closing. This would make sure the available light was only supplemented (not overshadowed) and that the patrons would not be inconvenienced by our presence.
As expected in Indiana, the weather too decided to keep us on our toes by raining right as we were shooting the exteriors! This led us to taking an additional trip to finish the exterior shots but the wet pavement ended up being gorgeous! During the multi-trip project the staff and owners were amazing. They were more than flexible with our timing and we were able to accomplish our standing goal of doing what it takes to meet the client’s needs.
Naturally, after all that hard work we are pretty hungry! We were so grateful for the opportunity to visit such a unique eatery, and as a foodie herself, Lesle plans on visiting the restaurant soon. The only question is, with so many amazing choices, how will she ever pick just one?
