GH Pizzeria & Eldr Tavern at Suncadia: Two Restaurants, One Building
Case Study: Two Concepts, One Building - Designing GH Pizzeria and Eldr Tavern at Suncadia
Suncadia draws a mixed crowd by design — families, golfers, weekend escape artists. A resort restaurant in that context has to handle a full house on a February Friday and feel right for a handful of tables on a Monday in March. Most hospitality architecture picks one condition and quietly fails at the other.
The Suncadia Social development gave us an unusual assignment: two restaurant concepts sharing a single building. Our studio was first engaged for master planning and concept work on the structure, then returned to design the interiors for both GH Pizzeria and Eldr Tavern. The continuity matters - it's how the building ends up with two distinct identities rather than one concept and an afterthought.
Both restaurants are currently under construction. What follows is the design case.
GH Pizzeria: Energy and Visibility
GH Pizzeria is a 60-seat dining room organized around a single premise: the kitchen is the room. A 20-foot chef's counter anchors the space, pulling the cooking process into direct view of the dining floor. The pizza oven sits near the entry, visible from outside and paired with a takeout window - the one element that extends the restaurant's reach beyond its four walls.
The material palette is fir plywood, green tile, and brass accents. Warm without being heavy, durable enough for a family-forward resort context. A large bar at the west end handles the post-golf hour without dominating the room, and an adjoining patio extends the footprint during the months when the Cascades justify being outside.
The pizzeria isn't designed to be intimate; it's designed to be open, communal, and easy to walk into. It's meant to feel open, communal, and undemanding - the kind of place you walk into without a reservation and leave happy.
Eldr Tavern: Thirty Seats
The tavern holds thirty seats, which is a design decision, not a limitation.
The spatial organization is built around a serpentine banquette that curves through the dining room, giving the space a center of gravity and making the room feel resolved rather than small. A 20-foot chef's counter maintains the kitchen-connection logic of the pizzeria, but in a quieter register - the kitchen is present without performing.
The material palette shifts entirely: leather, charred wood, blackened steel, ebonized oak, limewash finishes. An 8-seat bar sits just off the entry - dimly lit, compact, designed for cocktails and small bites without requiring a table. The intent is a room that slows guests down, which is the opposite of what the pizzeria is designed to do.
PROJECT INFO
Location: Cle Elum, WA (Suncadia Resort)
Type: Restaurant / Hospitality - Two Concepts
Architecture: Field Report Architecture
Year: 2025–2026
Status: In Construction
For a different take on the open-kitchen brief - a neighborhood restaurant rather than a resort - see Designing Haerfest.
