PORTFOLIO
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Alfonso’s Restaurant
Alphonso’s is the story of an old, turn of the century brick masonry building that started its life with a vaudeville auditorium up on the third floor and a large commercial ground floor that was everything from a hardware shop to a Sears and Roebuck catalogue center. Later the entire structure was subdivided by a furniture sales company to create mini showrooms on each floor level that resulted in a confusing maze of walls and openings. SSP was challenged with the design of renovations to create a ground floor restaurant that would seat 120, and second and third floor banquet facilities, as well as a take out and delivery pizza operation and adequate storage for all functions.By locating Alphonso’s kitchen in the rear of the ground floor restaurant, the take out/delivery operations run efficiently with direct egress to the staff parking area. The second floor banquet rooms are sub-dividable from one large space seating 250 to three more intimate rooms accommodating 65. Renovations to the structure’s original freight elevator, a fire rated stair tower and ADA equipped toilet rooms rendered the banquet halls fully ADA accessible.Alphonso’s received a Downtown New Jersey Design Award 1999 and remains a popular dining spot in downtown Somerville. Renovations and structural repairs for this project totaled approximately $300,000.
