Louis Vuitton opens their first restaurant in Osaka, Japan
By Khadejah Khan
Iconic French fashion house Louis Vuitton has opened its first restaurant and café inside its new store in Osaka, Japan, with retro interiors designed by the brand’s in-house design team.
Situated on the fourth (and top) floor of the store, both eateries are headed by acclaimed Japanese chef Yosuke Suga, who studied under French culinary legend Joël Robuchon as his protégé. Chef Suga combines French and Japanese flavors and techniques to showcase inventive Haute cuisine and exquisitely curated menus. Appetizers include Quiche Lorraine and a cup of consommé. Salads, sandwiches (like a Croque Monsieur with Raclette and Abondance cheeses), and various Wagyu beef dishes, plus Crab Macaroni and Cheese highlight the entrée section. Dessert options include an Opéra cake and mille-feuille with vanilla flown in from Madagascar. Guests can enjoy an array of coffees and an even wider selection of teas. Mocktails, wines, beers, champagnes, and non-alcohol spirits are available, as well as a surprising amount of options for mineral, still, and sparkling water.
The restaurant, Sugalabo V, takes the namesake of Chef Suga’s critically-acclaimed and exclusive restaurant in Tokyo. Mimicking that exclusivity, Sugalabo V seats a select number of guests each evening by invitation only, so securing a reservation won’t be easy—the booking process and the entrance are kept secret. Accessible via a hidden speakeasy door, the restaurant oozes LV’s signature chocolate-brown color palette, from fixtures to wood paneling, mood lighting, and brass-accented furniture. Guests can eat formally in offset dining spaces or around a high-counter that overlooks the open kitchen. Mustard leather seats line the counter, while the floor is clad in monochromatic rhombus-shaped tiles.
While the restaurant may be tough to get into, the new Le Café V is available to shoppers for upscale fare and drinks. Completed in a lighter color and material scheme, the café features creamy terrazzo flooring, huge yellow sofas, and iridescent discs hung from the ceiling that reflects the sunlight from large floor-to-ceiling windows. Oval accents decorate the room, like a huge brass bar with recessed shelves, carved ceilings, and curved seating arrangements in the aptly-named Cocoon Room. The glass windows and doors of the café morph to welcome an outdoor terrace that’s peppered with aqua-blue and lime-green Italian furnishings, making it a perfect pit-stop to relax mid-shopping. Here, guests can marvel up close at the façade of the store building, harmoniously uniting the exterior and interior spaces.
The interior in both eateries and spaces throughout the store also have nautical detailing, a nod to the building’s overall architecture. Japanese firm Jun Aoki & Associates, who have already designed many of Louis Vuitton’s stores in Japan, China, and New York, draw inspiration from the City of Water (as Osaka is known) to fuel the design of the French fashion house’s latest store. Emulating ship sails, the building is shrouded in 10 curved double-glazed glass, applied with ceramic frit on the surface to create the cloth-like appearance of billowing sails.
Sugalabo V and Le Café V opened February 15, following the opening of Louis Vuitton’s new Osaka boutique on February 1.
