Lawrence Group Designs Second Basso Restaurant in St. Louis
(ST. LOUIS, MO) Lawrence Group’s Hospitality practice recently completed its second Basso restaurant in the St. Louis area. Opened on May 27, 2025 at Westport Plaza in Maryland Heights, the new Basso on the Plaza is the sister restaurant to Basso at The Cheshire which opened in late 2012 at the historic Cheshire Hotel in St. Louis City. Both restaurants are owned by Lodging Hospitality Management.
“Years later, our client’s decision to return for another round affirms our team’s core beliefs: thoughtful design doesn’t just look good, but enables our clients to perform well, endure changes, and build brand equity over time,” said Lawrence Group Interior Designer Dana Peck, NCIDQ.
The first Basso was designed as a dynamic space, intended to live outside typical hospitality trend cycles. Nestled in a historic basement within a highly themed hotel, the interior needed to be inviting, intuitive, and truly memorable. Lawrence Group’s designers leaned into the natural texture of the architecture to achieve these core goals, layering in lighting to create a subterranean warmth while curating authentic materials to create a sense of understated luxury.
Basso at The Chesire further balances the intimate ambiance through highly functional design considerations such as clear sightlines for staff, private dining opportunities, and efficient kitchen adjacencies. The result is a space that resonates deeply with guests and works smoothly for operators, perfectly tailored to embrace the unique atmosphere of the Chesire Hotel.
The second location, Basso on the Plaza occupies a 6,000-sq-ft space at the north end of Westport Plaza in the former Nino’s restaurant which closed in 2009. Providing architecture, interior, and graphic design on the renovation project, Lawrence Group designers opted not to carbon-copy the flagship Basso but rather emphasize the brand’s sophisticated dining experience in the restaurant’s second location.
“When the client returned to us for the second location, it was a quiet, but powerful endorsement of our partnership and our process,” said Peck. “They weren’t just asking for a repeat of the first location, they were entrusting us to carry forward the spirit of Basso into a new context, with a fresh site, a new market, and elevated ambitions.”
Basso on the Plaza was fundamentally different from the naturally moody space offered at the Chesire; located at the edge of the recently redeveloped courtyard at Westport Plaza, the new space is on the street level of a bustling, mixed-use development with constant exposure to natural light. The restaurant would inherently be connected to the outdoor entertainment space through its storefront windows, offering generous views of the surrounding plaza and to frequent, large gatherings in the courtyard for sporting events and live music.
“From the start, we knew the design would need to be massaged to fit into the more modern surroundings of Westport Plaza. Additionally, since Basso on the Plaza would operate for lunchtime service, the space needed to be a chameleon, consistent to guests visiting for a quick business lunch or decadent night out alike,” added Peck. “The abundance of natural light challenged the team to play with different color tones, textures, and design elements to create a similar experience, rather than pursuing a simpler 1:1 translation of the original concept.”
By experimenting with different design concepts, the Lawrence Group team determined the color palette would need to be lightened and refreshed to better pair with the more modern surroundings of Westport Plaza. The dark, heavy wood tones from the Cheshire space were swapped for more modern, medium tones with simplified profiles, while the saturated warm colors in the palette were similarly neutralized into lighter, neutral tones. A deep field color helped to absorb the light streaming through the new storefront windows, offering a more consistent feeling throughout the day while retaining the moody ambiance central to the Basso concept.
Since its recent opening, Basso on the Plaza has been a new favorite in the St. Louis region. As part of a larger redevelopment of Westport Plaza, the new location further reinvigorates the property while introducing a high-quality, locally operated restaurant concept to the region.
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About Lawrence Group
Founded in 1983, Lawrence Group is an integrated planning and design firm headquartered in St. Louis, MO with professional staff in Texas, Florida and New York. Using the power of people with great ideas to bring their clients’ dreams to life, Lawrence Group specializes in architecture, interior design, master planning, landscape architecture and furniture procurement. Lawrence Groups’ talented team of professionals work nationally and locally in healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, housing, senior living and workplace with the common goal of providing legendary customer service.
To learn more about this powerful alignment of experience and expertise, visit www.thelawrencegroup.com or contact Director of Marketing Cindy Hausler, CPSM at cindy.hausler@thelawrencegroup.com
