we’ve been busy collaborating with the popal family for the last several months to reshape and rebrand their 7-year old restaurant, napoleon, into lapis, a modern afghan bistro. diverging from the family’s mainstay french cuisine, shamim popal– aka mom– developed an entirely new menu of homestyle dishes recreated from the family’s recipe archive.

creating this new brand identity meant diving deep into the roots of the family heritage. we wandered through archival photos of afghanistan and studied carpet patterns. we found ways to trace the family’s story and learned about each step in the cooking process.

the result is a beautiful hybrid of rich history and modern tastes. deep blues and patterns blend with light touches of old world elegance. photos tell the story, inviting you in, not just for dinner, but for a momentary escape to a family table familiar in its comfort, yet distant in its tastes.

see more at the lapis website.