Project Description:
Located within Washington, D.C.’s hip Shaw neighborhood is fast-casual restaurant, Cracked Eggery. Designed by local award-winning architecture and design firm //3877, the 1,609-square-foot space—open 24 hours a day, seven days a week—marks the second flagship location for the Cracked Eggery brand. The team has already built a strong following in the country’s Capital for their renowned food truck that serves up artisan egg sandwiches on soft challah buns, in addition to other egg-inspired cuisines.

For the brand’s latest outpost, the owners’ main design goal focused on maximizing efficiency—finding a way to provide Shaw and its inhabitants with a restaurant that delivered not only the tastiest egg sandwiches, but also celebrated the local culture of the neighborhood. During Cracked Eggery’s initial space-planning process, the //3877 team developed a layout that prioritized both back-of-house and front-of-house operations. With the post-pandemic world in mind, space planning for the eatery centered on the kitchen, ordering, and pick-up to ensure each was a flawless process, as diners and meal delivery personnel grab-and-go.

When entering Cracked Eggery, eyes are drawn to the kitchen’s colorful yellow backdrop—a nod to the key ingredient underscoring the menu. As guests decide what to order, they approach Cracked Eggery’s curved ordering counter, which is offset by other key architectural elements like the floating, partial-height wall and bar stool area, and the banquette seating. Expansive high ceilings are scaled by a retail canopy that mimics the shape of the order counter. A green wall at the retail canopy guides the eye upwards, from the low-hanging menu, towards the retro, marquee-style lit signage. Once an order is placed and picked up, guests can head over to the space’s function counter, providing an area for coffee finishing and grabbing sandwich condiments.

To bring #bigeggenergy into the space, //3877 playfully interpreted the ‘egg’ theme, mixing the motif with modern elements and local touch points throughout the entire interior. Whimsical cracked egg graphics, and a custom graphic wall designed by the Cracked Eggery team and //3877, capture the contextuality of the locale—complemented by egg-inspired light fixtures designed by JVA. Through employing Cracked Eggery’s branded color palette, made up of deep navy, bright yellow, and soft blue, the result is an eatery that reflects the brand’s true vision of celebrating the egg-centric eats.

The interior architecture achieves balance through lines and shapes, where thick linear lines are paired with thin organic forms. Contrast is achieved through reflection of matte and glossy surfaces—and pops of neon pink—creating intentional moments of glimmer. Thoughtful and purposeful, the design scheme prioritizes sustainable materials that align with the sustainable ingredients found on the menu. For example, wood countertops and millwork are reclaimed from Brick and Board in Baltimore, and tiles are sourced from Maryland and New Jersey.

With the safety of restaurant patrons and employees being top priority, other measures to keep the space clean and properly maintained have been implemented. Touchless menus are available, as are scannable QR codes alongside large-scale menus. Polished concrete flooring, porcelain tile, metal, glass, and vinyl wallcoverings all have inherent anti-bacterial properties, and can endure frequent sanitization.