Should you find yourself near Williamsburg’s waterfront on a given afternoon, you might discover an act of theater unfolding on Kent Avenue. Looking through the ground-level windows of the restaurant Misi, chef Missy Robbins’s eatery that opened last fall, you’ll find cooks preparing for the evening’s guests. Specifically, they are making pasta—kneading, extruding, and pressing—in a room that Misi’s designers, Asfour Guzy Architects, tailored specially for the craft.

“Making pasta is almost a scientific thing,” says principal Peter Guzy. “If you don’t have the right amount of humidity, you can’t dry the pasta properly.” And in Misi’s temperature- and humidity-controlled pasta room, the conditions are just right. At times, the space moonlights as a private dining area—possible thanks to its expansive view of the Manhattan skyline and a dash of stagecraft. (One pasta machine is set on a wheeled dolly, and stools hide away in storage.)