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Guests at Malka, the newly opened restaurant in West Palm Beach by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, have a lot to command their attention. It’s a refined and elegant project, with the added draw of a menu created by a celebrated chef. But, on a recent evening, one table held special fascination.

This was the question New York–based project designer More Gelfand heard over and over again as she and I enjoyed dinner. The visitors weren’t there to interrupt but rather to express their admiration for the restaurant’s elegance. And these were not brief compliments. Each diner spoke at length about the building’s warmth, intimacy, and inventiveness.

Malka, which means queen in Hebrew, is a growing network of eateries created by Israeli chef Eyal Shani. The first opened in Tel Aviv in 2018 as Shani’s stab at a kosher version of his contemporary Mediterranean cuisine. The 10,500-square-foot South Florida restaurant, which includes a 4,500-square-foot dining room housed within the renovated shell of a former garage, is the fourth Malka location. (The other two are in New York.) The project preserves the street facade of the existing building and takes advantage of the height and clear span created by its steel-truss roof structure. It also, Gelfand says, “was designed to transport diners to Tel Aviv” by evoking the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Israel’s largest city through an interplay of continuity, materials, plants, and original artwork.

Pierced-concrete block walls and Mediterranean plants create a continuity between the indoor dining room (top of page) and outdoor terrace (above). Photo © Amit Geron, click to enlarge.

Fire, one of Malka’s conceptual themes, is conveyed dramatically by the open kitchen, visible throughout the main dining room. Photo © Amit Geron

Entry to the restaurant is through an outdoor-dining terrace. Planted in a mix of Mediterranean and tropical species, its scale mimics Middle Eastern courtyards and immerses visitors in its Levantine atmosphere while also acting as a transition to Kimmel Eshkolot’s layered interior sequence. One recurring conceptual theme is the centrality of fire. The primal quality conveyed by the open kitchen’s grills and ovens—visible throughout the main dining room—lends the space a sense of communal gathering. Smaller dining areas and private rooms are discernible through large windows or walls of pierced concrete.

The latter is emblematic of Kimmel Eshkolot’s design approach at Malka. Assembled by hand from 15,000 blocks custom fabricated in Israel, the masonry units lend tactility and detail throughout the project. They also consciously evoke the lattice screens of mashrabiya and other traditional Mediterranean architecture, serving to both physically separate and visually define adjacent spaces with varying degrees of transparency and intimacy. Other materials imported from Israel include several types of stone, whose prominent veining contrasts with their mechanically precise fabrication as cladding for the bars and some walls. A similar juxtaposition between texture and precision appears in the weathering steel panels used to indicate thresholds, as well as hardwood doors and fittings. This palette of concrete, stone, steel, wood, and glass provides a visual richness while always remaining deferential to the project’s spatial dynamics.

The architects also used steel for design elements that accommodate religious practices. Bespoke mezuzahs on the doorposts at each entrance were fabricated from steel and are held in place with magnets. A turn in the hallway to the restrooms hinges on a freestanding basin used for netilat yadayim, the ritual pre-meal hand-washing ceremony. In both cases, steel furnishings mark a moment of pause and individual reflection in a place otherwise given to collective celebration.

The plants located throughout the terrace and adjoining garden and outdoor bar reinforce the design team’s intent to evoke the atmosphere of Tel Aviv. Outside, the landscape complements the organizational layering created by the concrete-block screen walls, while indoors the translation from organic to artificial is more dramatic. A chemically preserved olive tree sits just inside the entrance to the dining room, an intrusion of nature in a tightly defined interior that results in an uncanny effect.

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An olive tree (1), pierced concrete (2), and windows into private areas (3) create a communal feel. Photos © Amit Geron

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Landscape also features prominently in the site-specific art commissioned for the restaurant. Israeli artist Michal Rovner produced a series of video works featuring Mediterranean plant species associated with remembrance (like cypresses) or ephemerality (like poppies). Some play on monitors, others are projected onto walls, and all are unique to the spaces where they are shown. For instance, one is calibrated so that its animated characters align with the veins of the stone on which it’s shown. But the carefully conceived configuration within the restaurant, which makes Malka feel larger than its footprint, allow each piece to be seen from a variety of distances and angles. Rovnar’s contribution also includes photographs that, like the videos, take native flora as their subjects. Ultimately, Rovnar says of his work, “these landscapes really are about the human condition.”

The care with which Malka’s design incorporates craftsmanship, landscape, and art rewards visitors who allow themselves to experience the space by lingering over dinner or business meetings. The tactility of its materials invites touch, and the details of their assembly are exquisitely considered. As Gelfand explains, the restaurant’s design complements Shani’s cuisine. The food focuses on the inventive combination and recontextualization of a limited set of ingredients; the restaurant is that culinary attitude made physical.

“Both are meant to be a celebration of materials,” she says of Malka and its menu. And, judging by the response from Malka’s patrons, both are very successful.

Click plan to enlarge