Stella's Cucina Restaurant / MQ Architecture

Originally conceived as a cannabis lounge, Stella’s Cucina sits in the core of a new commercial building facing Boulder’s Historic District. As the enterprise could not be seen from the exterior, the space does not establish relationships with the city; therefore, we envisioned the project as an inheritor of the Speakeasy underground scene of the American Prohibition era and we sought the opportunity to bring natural light through a central skylight. This idea of an old-fashioned, elegant, but concealed space, profoundly influenced the design of the project. Only an “S” indicates Stella’s entrance on Walnut Street, hidden behind a towering 12 feet aluminum door under a perforated metal canopy.