SOURCE ARTICLE: https://rddmag.com/
While the idea was to dramatically transform Anthony’s Runway 84, preserving and creatively integrating elements of the iconic original was nonnegotiable. Much of the menu would remain the same, with a few updates and new additions, such as prime steaks and chops. The aviation-themed decor could be dialed down and reimagined but not abandoned. It now appears in the restaurant’s stylish, vintage artwork and in a sleek new logo, which appears at the host stand, in the tiled entrance flooring, on menus, cocktail napkins and on custom tableware. Red would remain a central interior color. And hundreds of framed photographs of Italian- American celebrities, sport stars and loyal customers, amassed over 40 years,
would continue to welcome guests on a Wall of Fame and help define the Runway 84 experience. From there, however, Falsetto and Fortis took a blank-slate approach.
“Mark had this vision for a place inspired by the Copa scene in Goodfellas; that’s how he first pitched it to me,” Fortis notes. “I knew exactly what he meant. But I am also a big believer in
unique brand storytelling versus just recreating a look. We needed to jump off from that inspiration and tell the Runway 84 story. I talked a lot with Anthony about what it was like growing up in New York; what it was like for him and his dad, classic New York characters, coming to South Florida in the ‘80s; about what Runway 84 represents as a gathering spot to generations of customers and how Anthony’s brought this sort of Italian-American family-dining destination to the city. I studied a lot of classic New York and Vegas restaurants and
supper clubs in the genre. The farther we got into it, the more the project grew in scope. It didn’t just need to be a beautiful space, it needed to nail the ethos of what the brand is about.”
Describing the freestanding structure itself as “like something you’d see along the highway in the mid-60s headed into Vegas,” Fortis says design discussions began with the bones of the building. Seen from the exterior, it includes a small tower feature on the roof, evoking an air traffic control tower. The layout inside featured a bar in the middle and a separate dining room. Interior features included a large airplane model suspended from the ceiling and windowless walls decorated to make guests feel like they were seated inside a fuselage.
“There was nothing that we didn’t gut,” Fortis notes. “We moved the bar, opened the space up, put in a lounge. It is a big, open space now, but it is designed as several smaller, more intimate zones. A big goal was to make sure regulars would come in and be blown away at how different it is. It couldn’t just be the old Runway with a paint job.”