Mack Allen’s is a restaurant and lounge at 5 Post Oak Park in Houston, with a walnut-lined entrance and lobby lounge, a sweeping oval bar, a glowing wall of wine beside the open kitchen, a main dining room set under a grove of trees, a champagne room, private dining and a boardroom.

The client provided ten original renderings of the spaces. The design was all there, but the rooms read like a quiet weekday lunch. Second Look Creative refreshed every view with evening light and the energy of a full house: guests in evening wear, bartenders and servers at work, plated steaks and poured wine, and flames rising from the open kitchen.