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Nancy Mah, 37
Partner
Nancy Mah Design
The house in Memphis where Nancy Mah grew up was a modernist barn that peeked out from behind a bamboo grove. Designed by her Chinese-American father, it displayed an eclectic interior created by her Southern belle mother.
“I loved the house, and it was the most tranquil setting imaginable,” says Ms. Mah.
Not surprisingly, East-meets-West has been a defining theme in Ms. Mah’s work as a rising restaurant designer. She blends hot pepper and creamy mango accents from Latin America with linear Japanese elegance in Manhattan’s Sushi Samba.
Another project, done as part of a design team, was the popular Ruby Foo’s Chinese restaurant chain in Manhattan, combining dramatic high-gloss surfaces with cozy Oriental kitsch. She also recently completed the luxurious Pacific fusion supper club, Lotus, in the meatpacking district.
Feeling like a “strange oddity” as an Asian-American in Memphis, Ms. Mah left to study art at Bates College in Maine and in Italy. She was 19 years old and a waitress in Manhattan when she met her future husband, restaurateur Michael Weinstein. He was later to become president of the $120 million Ark Restaurants Corp., which owns Lutèce, America and 25 other eateries.
Mr. Weinstein jump-started Ms. Mah’s design career by commissioning her work for An American Place and the Poiret grill in 1989. They’ve been separated since 1998, and Ms. Mah is raising their two children.
Her new beau, Scott Kester, is also her partner in Nancy Mah Design. “Our mission is to create a place that’s creative and fresh,” says Ms. Mah. “It should be immediately comfortable.”