At Tar & Roses, a wine rack with a twist: It’s rebar

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At the newly opened Tar & Roses in Santa Monica, chef Andrew Kirschner wanted to balance old and new not only on the menu, but also in the restaurant’s design.

He calls the look “rustic modern,” and one of the most impressive -- and surprising -- additions to the former Breadbar space is the towering wine rack constructed with simple rebar.

‘I was trying to use as much reclaimed or common building materials as I could,” Kirschner said. “I wanted to create a wine rack out of steel and rebar because it is a beautiful material. I was also thinking about price, as rebar is cheap as far as steel goes.”

Kirschner worked with fabricator Ramsey Daham of Breakform Design to design a wine rack for 740 bottles.

“We wanted it to have a mass so that it had vertical lines similar to the tiles behind it,” Daham said.

Because earthquake proofing was a priority, the rack uses multiple strands of rebar, is bolted to the floor, tied to framing at the ceiling and braced in the middle.

The designers completed the look by waxing the rebar, giving it a clean, black finish to prevent rust. A few weeks after opening, Kirschner is thrilled with the results.

‘I wanted something affordable and unique and different that hadn’t been done before,” he said. The wine rack is just part of the scene-setting at the 70-seat Tar & Roses, which juxtaposes elegant black tufted banquettes paired with a polished concrete floor, demijohn pendant lights (wine jugs turned into fixtures) from the Rose Bowl Flea Market that hang over Carrara marble, and sleek modern seats paired with charred wood tables.

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-- Lisa Boone