Sunlight falls on glimpses of the original wooden mouldings and vault door at this bank turned bistro on Québec’s Rue Saint-Joseph.

The Québec City restaurant’s interiors are fresh from a renovation by Appareil Architecture, which has daubed the space in a deep forest green designed to contrast Le Clocher Penché’s wooden furniture and terracotta tones.

The Montreal-based firm says the owners wanted to reimagine the space, creating something ‘at once audacious and classical’. The mosaic floor and decorative mouldings – dating back to 1916, when the building was still a bank – have been left untouched, although Appareil Architecture has installed new copper light fittings and terrazzo tables.

Diners can sink into velvet and leather banquettes, situated close to Le Clocher Penché’s kitchen, which is wrapped in dark green and glass partitions. More signs of the building’s past can be spotted elsewhere in the space, with the bathrooms located inside the old bank vault.

203 Rue Saint-Joseph E, Québec, QC G1K 3B1

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