When Val Nehez was 19 years old she opened a restaurant. The building was an abandoned department store, on the main street of the tiny town of Tivoli NY.  This was her first design project. Over thirty years later that restaurant is still open and thriving. Beyond the obvious, what is the “special sauce” that makes certain restaurants thrive? We believe everything matters. It’s what we call “the relational field”, The space around the objects. The sounds, the smells, everything people touch and feel. The folks at Roots understand this too.  Probably why we have been designing for them for over a decade.