About Our Restaurant
We started looking for a property with a house on it, suitable for a restaurant in 2017, located on A1A in Palm coast, FL and went under contract in June of 2017. We started clearing the land and making minor outside improvements until we closed in December of 2017. We did all of the renderings, models, architectural design work and then had the final drawings and engineering finalized by outside engineers and architects.
You can find a video on our Website: www.TheShapeOfWaterRestaurant.com Under Take a Tour “2017 In the Beginning” of what the property looked like just after we went under contract.
Our 1st Project was “The Bleeding Heart Bridge” and some of the rivers, started in January of 2018, near the back of the house and can be found under: “How We Made It”. The Bleeding Heart Bridge took 2 of us a combined 460 hours from beginning .
The construction process for all of our Projects is called Faux Bois ( meaning “false wood”) & Faux Roche meaning “false rock,” (made by wrapping wire mesh (chicken wire) or( lathe) around an armature (rebar) and putting layer upon layer of mesh and Portland cement (concrete) on the rebar and sometimes adding additional rebar for strength or to make additional limbs for the trees. We then layered a final thick coat of cement (about ½” thick) and start detailing it with a nail or other metal instrument (all final detailing was done by Jennifer). It is then stained and sealed. Faux Bois is a French term for the art of making ferrocement, which is a combination of steel and concrete. Cement mixes are applied to a steel framework, and then sculpted by hand to resemble natural wood. These works are not molded or cast! These are unique works of art, made using simple tools. The art form was invented in France, around 1870. Only a handful of artists continue to practice this esoteric art form.The rocks are made differently and we sometimes added inert materials as we build up the size of the rocks and then covered them with mesh and concrete. We have also used rocks and chunks of concrete to make our rocks, then stained and sealed. Everything you see here was done by hand, from digging the rivers and the footings to all the sculpturing of our waterfalls, and structures. We did all the plumbing and most of the electrical. We did have help on the block laying for the waterfalls and cave as well as the carpentry for decking and railings. We also hired people to help us with some of the large concrete pads like the roof of the cave.
The work started by having Jennifer, medical artist, sculpturer, extraordinaire, and who was the inspiration for all of the design and the major individual, who worked hand-in-hand together with me, from idea, to a rendering, to a model, through all of the construction, and as she would work tirelessly into the late hours of the night making sure everything was done the best. We had to be careful, not to cut to many roots and even protecting the roots by encapsulating in such a way as to allow them to grow under all the concrete above them. We are proud to say, we only had to take out one tree.
We have gone through 3 electric 2.5 cubic ft mixers, over 5 tons of rebar, 500 cubic yards of concrete, 10,000 sf of chicken wire and lathe and over 24,000-man hours in the designing, clearing, digging, construction, staining, sealing of the outside amenities as the end of 2022. Some of the few talented faux bois artists/sculptureres are/were:
- Joseph Monier
- Marcella “Marci” Davis
- Dionico Rodriguez
- Michael Fogg
- Carlos Cortez
- Terry Eagan
- Diane Husson
- Donald Tucker
Please go to our website “TheShapeOfWaterRestaurant.com” and look under “About” for a more detailed story about the two founders, designers, artists, sculptures & builders and what we are trying to achieve by giving this destination restaurant to our customers.