TABLE OF CONTENT
- About Five 13 Liquor Lounge
- A Neighborhood Lounge Created for Gathering
- Venue at a Glance
- Inside Five 13: Mood, Lighting & Modern Lounge Design
- The Challenge: Multiple Seating Experiences in One Intimate Space
- The Solution: Walnut, Zebrano & Black Metal
- Why the Mixed-Material Furniture Works
- Materials & Commercial Performance
- Cocktails, Conversation & the Guest Experience
- Furniture Inspiration & Moodboard
Five 13 Liquor Lounge: Cocktail Bar Furniture Case Study
A Modern Cocktail Lounge Built Around the Art of Staying Awhile
At 794 Franklin Ave in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, Five 13 Liquor Lounge offers something deliberately different from a full-scale restaurant or high-energy nightclub. It was conceived as a local place to meet for a cocktail, catch up with friends, hold a business conversation, celebrate an occasion, or simply stay for another round.
That kind of hospitality depends heavily on atmosphere. In a cocktail lounge, guests spend more time looking around the room, sitting at the bar, talking across a small table, and experiencing the lighting and materials around them. Furniture becomes part of the mood rather than simply a place to eat.
For Five 13, Superior Seating supplied a deliberately varied furniture package featuring walnut wood, fully upholstered seating, black steel, Zebrano wood-grain table tops, and cast-iron bases. Instead of matching every seat exactly, the project uses related materials and colors to create layers—an approach that fits the relaxed sophistication of the lounge.
A Neighborhood Lounge Created for Gathering
Five 13 opened in Franklin Lakes in early 2020. Owner Sam Alfano's original idea was straightforward: the community needed a local bar where people from the area could get together without having to travel elsewhere for a polished evening out.
The concept centered on craft cocktails, craft beer, specialty drinks, and a wine selection sourced from different regions. From the beginning, the lounge was also envisioned as more than a place to stop briefly for a drink, with entertainment and social events forming part of the concept.
That neighborhood orientation remains important to the character of the room. Five 13 feels polished, but the design is not intended to create distance between guests. Bar stools line the long counter, smaller tables support two- and four-person conversations, and different seating styles make the interior feel collected rather than overly formal.
Venue at a Glance
- Venue: Five 13 Liquor Lounge
- Venue Type: Cocktail Bar & Neighborhood Lounge
- Address: 794 Franklin Ave, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417
- Opened: 2020
- Founder: Sam Alfano
- Setting: Indoor cocktail lounge and bar
- Beverage Focus: Craft cocktails, specialty drinks, wines, spirits, and craft beer
- Primary Use: Drinks with friends, celebrations, business gatherings, social events, and relaxed evenings
- Interior Style: Contemporary Lounge with Industrial & Warm Wood Elements
- Design Palette: Black • Walnut • Zebrano Brown • Gray • Blue
- Furniture Focus: Upholstered wood chairs, walnut bar stools, black steel stools, Zebrano table tops, and cast-iron bases
Inside Five 13: Mood, Lighting & Modern Lounge Design
Five 13's interior demonstrates how lighting can completely change the character of commercial furniture. The room is built around a long bar with dark architectural detailing, backlit bottle displays, television screens, and vivid blue illumination running beneath the counter. Black cabinetry and wall elements give the space a deep backdrop, allowing the warmer furniture finishes to stand forward.
Above the bar, round woven pendant lights create a very different kind of glow. Their warm, textured appearance prevents the blue LEDs and dark surfaces from making the lounge feel cold. This contrast—warm light against cool light, wood against metal, polished surfaces against visible grain—is repeated throughout the furniture specification.
Zebrano table tops bring pronounced linear wood grain into the seating areas. Walnut chair and stool frames add another natural brown tone, while black cross-back steel stools relate directly to the dark bar structure. Gray flooring acts as a neutral base beneath everything.
The space therefore feels modern without relying on one material or one furniture style. Its character comes from contrast.
The Challenge: Multiple Seating Experiences in One Intimate Space
A compact cocktail lounge benefits from variety, but too many unrelated furniture styles can quickly make a smaller interior feel disorganized. Five 13 needed different seating formats for the bar and surrounding tables while maintaining enough visual continuity for the entire room to feel intentional.
Comfort also matters differently here than it might in a quick-service environment. Cocktail-bar guests often remain seated while talking through multiple rounds, meeting friends, watching a game, or celebrating an occasion. Fully upholstered seating provides one experience, while a simpler metal stool offers another.
- Multiple seating heights: Standard tables and the long bar required furniture at different elevations.
- Visual variety: The room needed personality without becoming cluttered by unrelated furniture styles.
- Intimate scale: Seating needed to fit comfortably within a lounge environment where conversation and circulation are equally important.
- Material balance: Warm wood, upholstery, black steel, and dark finishes needed to complement rather than compete with one another.
- Commercial use: Tables, chairs, stools, and bases needed to support repeated bar and hospitality service.
The Solution: Walnut, Zebrano & Black Metal
Rather than furnishing Five 13 with a single matching collection, Superior Seating used a mixed-material furniture strategy. Walnut Morgan chairs and stools bring warmth and upholstery into the space. Black steel cross-back stools introduce a more industrial silhouette. Zebrano table tops add visible grain and pattern, while matte black cast-iron bases visually connect the tables to the darker architecture.
The individual pieces are different, but their colors overlap. Black appears in the steel stools, table bases, footrests, bar, and surrounding architectural details. Walnut and Zebrano introduce complementary brown tones. Upholstery softens the harder surfaces, while gray flooring gives the palette a neutral foundation.
Why the Mixed-Material Furniture Works
Five 13 is a good example of why commercial interiors do not always need identical seating throughout. In fact, matching everything too closely could have made this particular lounge feel more like a conventional restaurant than an intimate neighborhood cocktail bar.
The Morgan collection creates the more refined side of the room. Its upholstered square backs and walnut frames have enough visual weight to feel comfortable alongside cocktails and evening service. The black steel cross-back stool is leaner and more industrial, creating contrast at bar height without introducing a new color.
The same relationship occurs at the tables. Zebrano is visually active, with pronounced horizontal grain, while the cast-iron bases are simple and dark. One element is meant to be seen; the other quietly supports it.
Lighting ties those materials together. Warm pendant fixtures emphasize the brown tones of walnut and Zebrano, while blue LED illumination interacts with the black furniture and darker surfaces. During evening service, the same furniture can therefore appear warmer in one part of the room and cooler in another.
Materials & Commercial Performance
The furniture package also demonstrates how several commercial material types can be used together according to the needs of each seating zone rather than forcing one material to perform every function.
- Zebrano Melamine Tops: The 1.75"-thick honeycomb table tops combine a strong wood-grain appearance with a lightweight, scratch-resistant, easy-to-clean indoor surface.
- Walnut Morgan Chairs: Solid European beechwood frames, mortise-and-tenon joinery, upholstered seats and backs, and nylon floor glides provide a furniture profile suited to indoor restaurant and lounge use.
- Walnut Morgan Bar Stools: The same wood and upholstered design language continues at bar height, with a black footrest coordinating with surrounding dark details.
- Black Steel Cross-Back Stools: Welded commercial steel construction introduces a more industrial seating option with a durable black finish and protective floor glides.
- Cast-Iron Bases: Black powder-coated commercial bases provide a substantial foundation below the lighter Zebrano tops and are available for both standard and elevated table applications.
Designing a cocktail bar or lounge? Explore Commercial Bar Stools and Hospitality Furniture.
Cocktails, Conversation & the Guest Experience
Five 13 was created around a simple social idea: give Franklin Lakes a local place where people can meet over a drink. That makes the layout fundamentally conversation-driven. The furniture does not need to support only a traditional meal; it needs to work for an evening that might begin with one cocktail and extend into several hours with friends.
Different seating types allow guests to choose how they use the space. The long bar provides a more energetic position close to the bartenders and bottle displays. Upholstered Morgan seating offers a softer option around tables, while black steel stools create a lighter, more casual profile.
Furniture Inspiration & Moodboard
The Five 13 moodboard begins with a restrained base of black, walnut, Zebrano brown, and concrete gray, then adds light as another design material. Warm amber from the pendant fixtures softens the wood finishes, while electric blue from the bar introduces a cooler nighttime accent. Upholstery, steel, visible wood grain, glass bottles, and reflective surfaces give the palette depth without relying on many different colors.
For designers creating a similar cocktail lounge, the key takeaway is contrast: pair warm natural-looking surfaces with darker commercial elements, use upholstery where guests are likely to linger, and allow lighting to transform the same material palette across different parts of the room.
Planning a Cocktail Bar or Lounge Furniture Package?
Superior Seating helps cocktail bars, lounges, restaurants, hotels, private clubs, and entertainment venues combine chairs, bar stools, table tops, bases, upholstery, and custom finishes into a furniture program designed around the atmosphere of the space. Five 13 shows how mixing commercial furniture styles can create a more layered interior when the materials and colors remain intentionally connected.
Contact us for a consultation — or submit a quote online.
Cocktail Lounge Furniture:
Designed Around the Atmosphere
Superior Seating helps bars, cocktail lounges, restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality venues coordinate commercial chairs, bar stools, tables, upholstery, and finishes around the identity and daily use of the space.
