How production designer Merje Veski transformed The Beef into ‘The Bear’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
In Season 2 of “The Bear,” The Beef became the titular character. Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) & Co. turned his late brother’s Chicago sandwich shop into a fine dining restaurant, which was a dream come true for production designer Merje Veski.
“It’s very exciting. Anything new is very exciting,” she tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: TV Production Design panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). What also made the transformation thrilling was that the 10-episode season chronicled the group’s 12-week renovation process. Bit by bit, week by week (well, except for “Fishes”), viewers could witness the progress that was being made. “You can see in The Beef, we actually taped it out what the new restaurant would look like, with the red tape or blue tarps and things like that, where we took the walls down and everything.”
The Bear is unveiled in the season finale when the restaurant opens for a friends and family night. The sleek design was inspired by creator and showrunner Christopher Storer‘s favorite restaurant, The French Laundry, and Chicago establishment Ever, where Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) spends a week staging in “Forks.”
SEE ‘The Bear’ renewed for Season 3
“We wanted to go with something that would be up to Michelin standards from this old sandwich shop. But it still has to remind [us] of some of the old elements of the place, so looking around and doing a bunch of research, we decided that we were going to save the old façade. It’s around in Chicago and all over the world, and the rest of it, we were going to rebuild,” Veski esplains. “Chris very much loved The French Laundry. That was his favorite restaurant for the looks and the simplicity of that. Food is what’s going to be the visual, the beauty in it. Everything else is going to be very simple. It’s about the food, not the restaurant.”
The second step was figuring out the lighting. Veski worked closely with cinematographer Andrew Wehde to have The Bear properly lit so the crew didn’t have to rig lights in between set-ups. Consistent lighting was also vital because of the layout of the kitchen and dining areas and the show’s penchant for long takes (never forget Season 1’s “Review”).
“I knew what Chris and Andrew had in mind, having, again, a one-camera shot through an episode or half an episode. So how can the camera roll in and out from the kitchen to the dining room to the back of the house — how can that be smooth?” Veski says. “And we designed around it, like putting the linear window between the kitchen and the dining room, so you can see through and see the action. But at the same time, Chris wanted to keep the kitchen action completely separate from the dining room, so the sounds wouldn’t go through. It’s not open concept, but you can still see the background.”
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?