Lil’ Simmzy’s on the Deck

The Simmzy’s restaurants are quintessential Southern California gastro pubs that evolve around a “beachside” and “surf scene” vibe. SFJones created the designs for multiple locations in beach cities throughout the region. A main design feature are open glass doors that blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor seating. For the El Segundo location the idea was to make all outdoor seating on a deck with a small interior bar. Originally the developers of The Point shopping center planned to create small prefabricated kiosks for retail outlets within the public spaces, but decided to change them into little restaurants to activate the courtyard space. The challenge was to fit all the kitchen requirements into an 825 sf space, while not putting any mechanical equipment on the roof to make it visibly attractive from all sides. This turned out to be a big challenge for the genesis of SFJones’ “tiny restaurant” concepts and became a model of how to have multiple food venues in a small shared social space. The solution for the mechanical equipment was to create a ventilated stacked tiered structure along one side of the building to house water heaters, exhaust fans, and other equipment to create a chimney like structure. The seating area is on a wood deck with cable lighting, heaters, and shading devices to make the space comfortable in the elements. The interior space is primarily taken up by kitchen equipment with a pass-through window in a glassed off food prep area to satisfy health department requirements. Reclaimed teak wood interior ceilings, patterned teak low walls, multicolor exterior seating, and a 12’ long communal table gives the space the Simmzy’s charter look.