The recreation of London's Lyaness at Mastercard's PRICELESS-An International Culinary Collective ... [+]
Pop-up restaurants are pretty commonplace these days, with chefs or mixologists doing guest appearances in restaurants in another place in the world. It’s not typical, though, for a restaurant to be entirely reconstructed in another location but that’s what PRICELESS-An International Culinary Collective owned by Mastercard in conjunction with its location, the event/work space Spring in New York’s Tribeca.
The recreation of Zanzibar restaurant The Rock at PRICELESS-An Internal Culinary Collective
“With PRICELESS, we are reinventing experiential dining to create a feast for all your senses by completely immersing you in the environment of these world-renowned locales,” said Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer, Mastercard. And they do mean immersing: the experience will include not just recreating the physical structure of the restaurants but also the aromas and sounds that diners would experience in the original places.
Egg Tagliatelle, a dish served at The Rock.
The first three to take up residence represent a wide range of locations and styles. "We sought out world renowned chefs and mixologists who are at the cutting edge of what's next in cuisines and cocktails and were also willing to work closely with us to bring their establishments to life," according to Cheryl Guerin, Executive Vice President, North American Marketing & Communications, Mastercard. The first, The Rock is a restaurant off the coast of Zanzibar reachable only by foot at low tide and by boat when the water rises. The cuisine is African including dishes such as Swahili carpaccio and red snapper (six courses for $135), the view is a 360 degree panorama of the ocean, the aromas are the salt of the ocean mixed with moss and beechwood and the sounds are the sounds of waves.
The oysters served at Lyaness.
The London bar Lyaness is the creation of mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana, opened after he won best bar of 2018 with his previous establishment Dandelyan. The look of the bar is being reproduced from the curved green onyx bar to the blue stools and the sounds of ice cubes dropped into cocktail glasses will replicate those in London. Cocktails will be priced at $16 and there will be bar bites such as oysters and a wagyu beef hot dog.
Chef Takayoshi Watanabe with his sushi knife.
The third, Teruzushi from Kitakyushu, Japan is experiencing the most complete reconstruction since the chef Takayoshi Watanabe is a one of a kind chef, theatrically carving his sushi preparations with a 28 inch long curved blade. Since he can’t be in two places at once, he’s closing the restaurant in Japan and bringing his staff along to be at the 12 seat sushi counter in New York. He plans to serve a 15 course tasting menu including spear squid with uni and an unagi burger for $395.
While all of this is going on below, chef JJ Johnson will also be curating a Global Market of small plates from around the world on the building’s roof terrace. The kickoff for all is tomorrow, running to January, 2020 when the next three restaurants will be announced. The one stipulation is that it's only open to Mastercard holders with payment by the credit card or cash.
