Guests at Soy Cowboy walk through a grove of bamboo to arrive in the restaurant’s moody interiors, created by Gail McCleese and Sensitori Design.
Haii Keii is more than an Asian steakhouse; it’s a full-on futuristic experience that diners won’t soon forget. Interior designer Gin Braverman of Gin Design Group sets the scene with a “futuristic Kill Bill” energy—bold color, bright lights, and edgy art, including a sculptural bonsai tree hung upside down over a bar. Meanwhile, Eunice, helmed by chef Drake Leonards, takes a gentler approach. Its French country warmth and layered textures offer a comforting tribute to his Cajun-Creole upbringing in Louisiana.
Both restaurants, though distinct and nearly opposite in style, are examples of immersive design at its fullest, showcasing the many layers of a technique that transports visitors into a specific world. Houston designers say immersive design goes far beyond interiors; it’s a high-tech, multisensory experience that can be so evocative guests feel like part of it.
Across the city, design firms are incorporating everything from virtual reality to interactive gaming elements. In restaurants, immersive design may take the form of high-tech art installations, theatrical menus and cocktail lists, and luxurious environments so well-executed that visitors feel as if they’ve stepped into another place entirely.
Interior designer Gin Braverman’s challenge at Eunice was to turn a glass and concrete box into a restaurant that felt like it was the French Cajun Louisiana countryside.
“To me, immersive design blends the art and science of design that awakens memories. You see a desk, and you remember why you bought it, how the leather top makes you feel. It’s about that,” says Gail McCleese of Houston-based Sensitori Design. “It’s not just color and texture and pattern, but every detail that stirs an emotion in you. To me, design is memory architecture.”
The guiding question for any project, then, is simple: “Who is your audience?” Braverman says this is where everything begins. For a restaurant, is the target social media influencers seeking a camera-ready thrill at every turn, or a diner celebrating craftsmanship and cuisine?
Braverman, whose clients include De Fortune, Starduster Lounge, the Lymbar, and Jūn, says the answer is always “thoroughness,” attention to detail, and a commitment to designing a space that “isn’t like somewhere else.”
For residential spaces, the goals shift. Interior designer Cindy Aplanalp Ruzicka of Chairma Design focuses on improving physical health and mental well-being through what she calls “restorative design” (Ruzicka also owns Loyly, a cold-plunge spa, which she and her husband use daily). “We design spaces where technology serves as a tool to elevate the human experience, not replace it—where spaces are intentionally designed with purpose and meaning to be calm, not over-stimulated, and soul-soothing,” Ruzicka says. “The families we work with are burned out and starving for stillness. They need their homes to be sanctuaries that protect what’s purely human.”
Interior designer Cindy Aplanalp Ruzicka emphasizes better health through good design, like this bathroom that brings in elements like plants and natural light.
Demand for outdoor kitchens, pavilions, and, more recently, outdoor saunas and cold-plunge pools has grown in recent years, expanding the firm’s scope, she adds. Ruzicka says her team also considers layers of sensory regulation: lighting for circadian rhythm, darkness for deep sleep, and thoughtful use of sound and technology to support moments of tranquility. “Stillness in design is such a luxury for people,” Ruzicka says. “They don’t realize how nourishing quiet is.”
While Ruzicka tailors her work to individual clients, McCleese and Braverman, who focus primarily on the hospitality industry, consider broader but highly specific audiences. A restaurant’s design must capture a guest’s imagination—from the moment they approach the entrance, move through the bar, visit the restrooms, and sit in the dining room—all while embodying the establishment’s mission. It’s a highly intuitive process that Braverman says can “cover a multitude of sins.”
“In some places, less is more,” she says. “If that’s the aesthetic that the space or concept needs, then you have to recognize and honor that.” At Starduster, an aviation-inspired cocktail lounge, Braverman notes that her team took a lighter touch; they cleaned up the building, made it more functional, and gave it a “facelift” or a little “zhuzh.”
De Fortune, an upscale cocktail bar she also designed, leans in a different direction—full movement, with undulating curves in the furniture and ceiling that take bar patrons on a trip to sea. “The contours of the architecture and pattern in the flooring and stones that were chosen…[were] overwhelmingly immersive,” Braverman says.
McCleese’s projects often center on a focal point. At Ben Berg Hospitality’s Heights steakhouse, Prime 131, it’s fire. Design elements like open flame, charred wood, and copper factor strongly into an aesthetic that lends an earthy, industrial energy reminiscent of the site’s past life as a door factory.
Prime’s sister restaurant, Anabelle Brasserie, is quite different—lined with flowers at the entrance, on the ceiling, and throughout the dining room. McCleese says Art Deco–style lighting and statement wallcoverings, whether textured or dramatically oversize, can deliver enormous impact with relatively simple gestures.
“Art can be immersive,” McCleese says. “…I like things that people can stand and stare at.”
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