Bangkok (Thailand) – January 31, 2020 (travelindex.com ) – Innovation, Concept, Profit, a potent combination that ensures the success of a restaurant; there is no better at it than lebua Hotels & Resorts, and its forward-thinking CEO Deepak Ohri. Forever trailblazing, the launching of Sirocco – an alfresco Mediterranean dining establishment, then the floating day club – a global first, and now Mezzaluna – going back to black and white in a digital era – may showcase pioneering thinking, but ultimately it displays a keen willingness to ensure that guest experience is paramount.
It takes a mere moment to create memories; the ethos behind the lebua Hotels & Resorts brand. And here, the focus is to craft experiences that are unique and special; case in point, the Two-Starred MICHELIN Mezzaluna. An innovation in its own league, this is the first restaurant in the world to use French techniques with Japanese ingredients to create an outstandingly special cuisine; a signature if you will, and vastly different to the offerings of other MICHELIN-Starred restaurants who have the contrary. The difficulty in the rarity of the ingredients, availability of the ingredients, and complexities of cooking them in the traditional Gallic way only serves to showcase the immense expertise residing within this establishment; despite this vast divergence in concept to the norm, however, Mezzaluna serves authentically French cuisine only.
And such an exceptional proposition needs a home to live up to the expectations of its cuisine. With the rise in social media there is a trend to create stunningly beautiful plates for the sake of aesthetics; the gross disparity leads to plates being more instagrammable than edible, akin to a fake Louis Vuitton that may appear impressive but soon lacks in the minutae. However, at Mezzaluna the effort is spanned across the whole journey – ambience, details, cuisine – and as such the key to redesigning its interior was to take it to the basics. Stripped back to a black and white palette, the classic and timeless juxtaposition reflects the essence of the food served to enhance guests’ emotions.
Playing with light and showcasing the spectacular surroundings, Tim Kobe – the legendary designer who devised the first Apple stores – and Ohri, have created a space that enriches the experience of Mezzaluna; a place where you enter through intricate iron gates, a place where you dramatically waltz up a sweeping staircase, a place where you can look up and watch the rippling reflection of the Chao Phraya as the moonlit mirror illuminates the room (intelligently, 30% of the light in Mezzaluna will come from this river)… Magical.
As I sit in the restaurant in its current incarnation, I am thrilled to be able to exclusively preview a refreshing take on restaurant design; giving the guest a full and cohesive culinary voyage. Mezzaluna will be refurbished from 1st to 30th June, and after a remarkable 30 days it will reopen on 1st July – I for one can’t wait for a reemergence of the unwaveringly stylish black and white era when Kodak was a moment; I will be catching that very moment at Mezzaluna.
In a colorful or monochrome environment, the real hero at any restaurant is the food. And in food like in history some figures claim legend status while leaving others, even those of great cultural and culinary contribution, behind as mere footnotes. Ansel Adams monochrome photography set the standard for black and white photo prints, will the new, monochrome, Mezzaluna herald a new era in luxury?
