By Angelina Rascouet
Louis Vuitton is set to open its first restaurant in France, just in time for the summer season.
The fashion brand owned by the luxury conglomerate LVMH SE is opening the dining spot, to be called Mory Sacko at Louis Vuitton, in the Riviera town of Saint-Tropez on Friday, June 17. The 40-seat spot with outdoor dining will be located at the White 1921 hotel and headed by Mory Sacko, the French-West African chef behind the Michelin-starred MoSuke restaurant in Paris.
Sacko’s cuisine is inspired by African and Japanese flavors, reinventing dishes such as the Japanese bento box-style meal kits called ekiben, according to the press release.
“Creative, summery flavors are presented on a custom-made wooden tray designed by the chef and displayed in glass containers embellished with preserved flowers and foliage,” the statement added.
Mory Sacko at Louis Vuitton is located on Place des Lices, which is known for petanque, a ball game widely practiced in southern France. The square is a mythical spot in a town beloved by 1950s celebrities such as Brigitte Bardot. In more recent times, Saint-Tropez has become a favored playground for billionaires and Hollywood stars who enjoy berthing yachts in the nearby marina.
This is only the second restaurant from Louis Vuitton; the first opened in Osaka, Japan, in 2020. Last month, the fashion brand also opened a temporary restaurant that closed last week in its Seoul store and was led by the Korean-born French chef, Pierre Sang Boyer.
Rival luxury brands have also broadened their offering to include restaurants. Gucci partnered with Massimo Bottura for its Gucci Osteria in Florence, Italy, which opened in 2018, and now has four outposts including one in Beverly Hill, Calif. Bottura is the chef behind the Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, a three-star Michelin spot named best restaurant in the world in 2016 and 2018.
LVMH’s Cheval Blanc hotel in Paris made culinary headlines earlier this year when its Plenitude restaurant garnered three stars on the Michelin France 2022 list less than a year after opening. Plenitude chef Arnaud Donckele hails from the brand’s Saint-Tropez outpost La Vague d’Or, which also has three stars.
Sacko, who is of Malian and Senegalese origin, gained national visibility in 2020 when he was a contestant on France’s Top Chef . While he didn’t win the culinary reality show, less than a year later he won his first Michelin star for his Parisian restaurant.
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