Louis Vuitton has just opened its first café & restaurant
The luxury fashion maison is now trying a hand at the hospitality industry
Luxury French fashion house Louis Vuitton has just opened the doors of its first café, Le Café V, and restaurant, Sugalabo V, in Osaka, Japan.
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
The café and restaurant are housed on the top floor of the Maison Osaka Midosuji store, with the futuristic appeal of the building designed by architects Jun Aoki and Peter Marino, made to resemble a traditional Japanese Higaki-Kaisen cargo ship with billowing sails.
Each facet of the building is completely enveloped by ten sails in a three-dimensional airfoil shape, composed of two-dimensional, double-glazed, curved glass panels covered in a ceramic frit to create a cloth-like patterned appearance on the glass and emulate the sail of a ship.
The sailing ship design also reflects the identity of the city of Osaka as the 'City of Water' with flowing interwinding rivers and canals, where merchant vessels would trade and ship and goods during the Edo period.
Louis Vuitton's Maison Osaka Midosuji Store Building (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
The Le Café V is nestled atop the Maison Osaka Midosuji store building, complete with luxuriously plush interiors and a plein-air outdoor seating area (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
True to Louis Vuitton's exclusivity, a secret entrance in Le Café V leads to the private Sugalabo V restaurant, which is only open to a select few diners per night.
Sugalabo V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
Sugalabo V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
In charge of both kitchens is head chef Yosuke Suga - a protégé of French culinaire-extraordinaire Joël Robuchon - whose name inspired the restaurant's title, Sugalabo V.
The exquisite menus of Le Café V and Sugalabo V reflect both the luxuriance of the brand and the fine cuisine that characterises Chef Suga's experienced creative background.
The café's servings include a range of coffees and teas, including a particular variety of green tea from Kagoshima, Japan, that was the "first picked tea of this year", and Darjeeling tea from Turzum, India. The menu also boasts a range of non-alcoholic wines and mocktails, along with beers, wines, and tea-infused cocktails.
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
A particular standout feature of the café's menu is the mineral water section, which has everything from a $23 USD glass bottle of Evian to the more frugal option of a $13 USD Wasan bottled water.
For those with a little more appetite, choose from a range of salads, sandwiches, or crab and Wagyu beef dishes. For the sweet-toothed, there's also plenty to choose from, including mille-feuille with Madagascan vanilla crème, a Fraisier cake with hand-picked strawberries, and a classic chocolate Opéra cake.
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
Le Café V (Credit: Louis Vuitton)
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