Restaurant Design | O’Sullivan’s Wharf Chesapeake

I grew up frequenting O’Sullivan’s Wharf in Norfolk.  Our family’s good friends owned the restaurant and it became our “place.”  Lewis McGee, a regular musician at the restaurant, always used to sing to me when I came in…he even did a Little Mermaid duet with me when I was about 10–my debut LOL.  I named the fish in the fish tanks.  Then I grew up and started working there…my first big girl job.  Needless to say, when I heard Joe was opening an O’Sullivans mere minutes away from my house in Chesapeake, I was excited (hushpuppies and fried fish for dayyssss!!!).

At some point after Joe had signed the lease, I visited the space and offered to help him spruce it up a little bit-because it desperately needed some work.  The layout was strange and boxed up, the colors were very in your face, and the floor had been painted with a garage floor type flake paint.  I was basically a sounding board along the way for design ideas–picked out some new colors and told them where to paint them and selected new fixtures.  Here are some before and after (/During…there’s still a few things left to do!) pictures of the space!

Bar before:

Bar after (new lighting, rustic wood trim, rustic metal bar front, wine racks, etc–neon lights were an after-the-fact addition and they change colors periodically):

Main dining area before:

Main dining area after (paint, fish tank, opened the walls up, cleaned the floors, oyster boat paraphernalia on the ceiling, channel marker lights, etc):

Back room & Raw bar before:

Back room after (new art, removed the banquette, paint, marlin):

Front Entrance:

I hope to see you out there enjoying some great seafood and live music!