„Vanguard, without trying to be a hipster location: The restaurant Sosein, close to Nuremberg, is the most thrilling restaurant opening of the year“ Stevan Paul writes in the „Süddeutsche Zeitung“. The restaurant Sosein has opened in a historic building in October 2015. After 40 days only the restaurant guide Gusto appointed the chef Felix Schneider as newcomer 2016.

In january 2015 Jens Brockerhof, CEO of El Paradiso catering asked toc. designstudio to create a concept for a new restaurant which will provide the chef Felix Schneider a perfect stage for his passion for cooking. The interdisciplinary team from toc. designstudio and the chef developed in several intensive workshops a holistic concept. From interior design, styling, corporate design to corporate wording and even corporate behaviour, all is covered by toc. designstudio.

The spirit
Sosein is a bow to the nature and it’s tasty (gustatory) treasures. The holistic approach makes the seasonal choice of ingredients to an unremovable basis of the concept.
Anything may be – at it’s time – and only then.
Appreciation is the ultimate ambition.
The essence of each ingredient is studied very well to ensure it can unfold its treasures. This is the ultimate way to create the best taste and quality.

The kitchen
The kitchen of Felix Schneider is subtle. The ingredients are precisely analysed and devided in the essential parts. During this process he discovers the miraculousness for new creations. Someone who tastes very sensible will not only find the ingredient, but the entire world. Felix Schneider picks, collects, grows his own vegetables and herbs and knows the suppliers and the animals.
The chef and his team find the best what nature has to offer and turn it into the one and only menue. The menue changes 4 – 6 times per year.

The evening
The common menue start is at 7:00pm. There is no a la carte. Guests ring the bell at the entrance door and are welcomed by the chef himself. It feels like being the personal guest to Felix Schneider’s home. Guests enter the unshiftable world of the Sosein for a very tasty experience and will leave it newly inspired after at least 4 hours.

The spatial concept
The cosy and traditional appearance of the historic building is complemented by surprisingly modern but always down to earth elements. The interior colors follow a reduced pallet to allow the food to be the main attraction. Specific color accents are done by decorative items which result from one of the menue ingredients and change therefor together with the menue 4 – 6 times a year. This ingredient is used to decorate the room as special and surprising as it is used in the menue. As flower, plant, color, juice, …
In the entrance area the guest find a hanging garden where one of the menue ingredients grows.

The restaurant is devided into 2 rooms. There is a traditional wooden room in the studwork house for 12 guests and a vaulted room with stone walls for app. 16 guests. The character of the rooms is very different but the new modern elements bring the design together. The relaxed feeling is created by authentic materials such as wood, metal and leather. All treated manual by craftsmen to achieve an individual appearance, just the same way the chefs treat the ingredients in the kitchen. Coffee tables and wine coolers are from bronzed metal developed with the artist Marcus Brockhaus who lived in Nuremberg for several years. The chairs are from Freifrau, a German chair manufactory.

The lighting design is scenographic and focuses on the food and details of the room. Decorative lights bring the atmosphere to perfection. In the vaulted room the indirect illumination provides a cosy feeling while the cantileverd lamps bring the light to the tables.

The graphic concept
The graphic concept is the logical consequence of the general concept. The ingredients are in the center of the menue. So they are in the graphic design. There are no food photos from the menue, there are only photos from the ingredients. The real and honest ingredients. A cabage leaf with a hole, tomatoes with bumps. It is always about appreciation. There are 2 large photo canvases in the vaulted room which show close ups of ingredients which are part of the menue.

Designed by toc. designstudio
Tanja Wittmann: concept, communication design, web, text
Torsten Haardt: concept, interior
Jan Wittmann: concept, interior, web, photo

About
toc. designstudio is a successful and lively office in Nuremberg. The name TOC stands for Transfer Of Creativity. And this is what it is about: Lateral thinking, mix of disciplines, being wild and passionate and still keeping the best possible result for the client in mind. The creative heads behind toc have their roots in interior- and visual design. Their work is influenced by the appreciation of humans and their environment.