Where great food meets great design
You’ve probably heard the joke about a certain ex-President complaining about his expensive restaurant bill. A guest tells him it’s probably due to the ambiance, to which the President replies indignantly, “Who ordered the ambiance?”
Kidding aside, ambiance is not on the menu at Steak & Frice, Amado Forés’s newish restaurant in BGC (it opened last December), but it’s served to you in spades thanks to its designer, Hong Kong-based architect Sean Dix, who made a splash worldwide by designing Yardbird, a modern izakaya in HK that was such a standout it landed on San Pellegrino’s “50 Best Restaurants in Asia” list in 2014.
Dix, a tall, blond American who hails from Kansas City, Missouri (go, Chiefs!), actually lived in the Philippines from ages 10 to 12, because his father was assistant director for the Peace Corps in the region. “When we lived here, my family adopted my brother and sister, so I have a Filipino brother and sister back in the States,” Dix relates. “And she’s a complete smartass. She introduces me to her friends as her Asian brother.”
Though he was too young to absorb any style influences from the Philippines, Dix has the warmth and friendliness of the typical Pinoy, plus the curiosity of the cultural anthropologist he initially wanted to become. “I’m fascinated by people — trying to figure out why they do things.”
He did his undergrad at the Art Institute of Chicago with a double major in interior architecture and sculpture before taking his master’s at Domus Academy in Milan, apprenticing under iconic architect Ettore Sotsass (“From him I got the courage to work with material and color combinations that are challenging”).
Living, working and starting a family in Italy, after 15 years Dix moved to Hong Kong for the opportunities — “and I always liked this part of the world.” Though he still keeps an office in Milan, he’s been based in Hong Kong for the past 15 years, and has designed almost 50 restaurants there, many of them as atmospheric and stunning as a Wong Kar-wai film set (he’s a fan).
Amado Forés loved the look of one of the Hong Kong restaurants Dix designed, the New Punjab Club, but the young restaurateur had to work up the courage to
