Project · Austin, TX
Restaurant François, Austin: A Custom Zinc Edge Profile, Sized to the Bar
Restaurant François opened in downtown Austin in late 2025, a French-American dining room from Guy + Larry Restaurants and chef-proprietor Harold Marmulstein. Its interior, by designer Janet Henrich of Henrich Design LLC, needed a bar edge with real classical weight. We made it in zinc.
01
The Brief
The project began the way many of our best ones do: with a sample request. The design team wanted an edge profile that could work as basin trim around the bar. It had to have ornament, read as solid metal, and fit their bar exactly.
02
The Challenge
We usually build the entire surface: top, edge, and drink rail as one system. Here the scope was trim only. That changes the job. A trim piece has nowhere to hide. It has to meet someone else’s top and cabinetry at the right height along every straight run and around every curve, and the joints have to read as one continuous band of metal.
03
Our Solution
We started from an egg-and-dart profile we designed ourselves, one of the edge profiles in our custom offering. Then we modified it for this bar. We adjusted its height to suit the bar’s dimensions and drew the curved sections in CAD to follow the bar’s radius ends. Every piece was made to the exact size the design team asked for, so it arrived ready to fit, not ready to be fussed with on site.
The finish is zinc with no texture, so the ornament does the talking. We delivered it with no patina, and at the client’s request we left it unwaxed, so the metal could begin developing the warm, rich tones of a light patina on its own.
04
The Result
The trim wraps the bar as one continuous band of zinc egg-and-dart, set against the red and cream lattice of the bar front. Trim-only work isn’t something we usually take on. For the right profile and the right design team, we made an exception, and the bar shows why.
How the Surface Wears In
Zinc is a living metal. It doesn’t stay the way it left our shop. Hands, glassware, and cleaning gradually deepen its tone. Because this trim was left unwaxed on purpose, nothing stands between the zinc and the room, and it has already started to patina in service. On a profile this detailed, the raised egg-and-dart picks up a soft polish while the recesses darken, so the ornament reads more clearly as time goes on.
Why an Edge Profile Matters
The edge is the part of a bar that guests touch, lean on, and look at most. Standard edges come in a few stock shapes. A designed profile, sized to the bar, makes it an ornamental metal bar edge that carries the room’s architecture right to the point of contact. That’s why our custom edge profiles are drawn to the project, not picked from a catalog.
Questions
What edge profile was used at Restaurant Francois?
An egg-and-dart profile we designed ourselves, modified for this bar: resized to the bar’s height and drawn in CAD to follow its radius ends.
Why was the zinc trim left unwaxed?
At the client’s request, so the metal could begin developing the warm tones of a light patina on its own in service.