STANDARD daily edition
(eco) excentrique
standard stag thursday, september 20, 2012
a Design Affair Chris McCray
tells us all the steamy details
patrick jones
After a stint teaching college in New York, running a huge design company in Virginia, and getting his master’s degree from Rhode Island School of Design, Chris McCray decided to start fresh in Austin. Don’t be fooled by his newcomer status though: McCray & Co., the design company he runs with his wife, is already busy, accomplished, and expanding. The newest venture for McCray & Co. is noodle joint Ramen Tatsu-ya. I caught up with Chris to see where his rising popularity and successes are taking him and what his plans for the future are.
p: How did your collaboration with ramen tatsuya come about? c: Tatsu contacted me to talk about his concept for a ramen place. He had a space in mind already, so I met him there. He told me about his ideas for a ramen restaurant, and all I could think was, these guys are gonna kill it. I told him he had no idea the storm he was about to get into. p: i went to the restroom at ramen tatsu-ya and noticed some interesting stuff! C: We’ve reached this time in our society where people aren’t cooking at home as much...When I was growing up, it was a special occasion for us to go out to eat, so when I design a restaurant, I feel like part of my job is to give people an experience that they can’t have at home. I feel like bathrooms are usually overlooked in restaurants, so one of my goals is for people to return to the table with an immediate, “You HAVE to go check out the bathrooms.”
P: What projects are you working on now? C: I had a meeting this morning with a fabricator about producing a line of furniture that is made here in Travis County...[with] a system that allows a buyer to have some DIY opportunities and to curate it to a degree. We’re hoping to launch it at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. I’m also working on a project right now with Tito’s Vodka. My [wife and] business partner and I are collaborating on rebranding and updating Hoover’s Cooking, and we’ve got several other great projects coming up. p: what are your plans for the future? c: I’m hoping to get more involved in residential design and collaborating with some of the amazing architects here. Stay tuned. mccray-co.com
Barn Wood Bar Stool