Superstar-loved hospitality model Drai’s quietly opened its first-ever East Coast enterprise: a New York Metropolis supper membership serving magnificence and French-American delicacies.
“Drai’s is a 30-year-old model. It began in Los Angeles once I was born again in 1993, and it was initially a French restaurant,” Drai’s Administration Group president Dustin Drai tells Web page Six solely.
Whereas the nightlife model has expanded with a nightclub, seaside membership and after-hours vacation spot in Las Vegas frequented by stars like Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez and Odell Beckham Jr., the son of Drai’s founder Victor Drai had his eyes set on “going again to [their] roots.”
“What higher means to do this than return to what Drai’s was and do an homage to the unique Drai’s 30 years in the past — however with a contemporary twist,” Dustin, 31, muses.
The brand new Meatpacking District-based eating expertise — situated within the iconic house as soon as house to the shuttered nightclubs Nell’s and Up & Down — presents patrons an approachable but imaginative menu of French-American honest by chef Yoo Hyun Suk like a candy and savory tomato tarte, frog legs, steak au poivre and, for these not feeling the consequences of President Trump’s tariffs, a $1,000 caviar service.
“You should buy a whole pound of caviar that would be the thousand-dollar dish,” Dustin says. “You will have one thing extravagant that will get introduced on the desk.”
The nightlife aficionado emphasizes that “all [their] meals is Instagram-able,” however that he has little interest in “going too overboard” and making the eatery “gimmicky.”
“It’s a combination of simply basic dishes, however every one has some component the place you may take out your cellphone and take an image,” he says.
The basement degree of the venue was reworked right into a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge with reside music.
“It’s not a nightclub,” Dustin clarifies of the lower-level joint. “We’re going to give attention to the cocktail program and actually make it someplace the place it’s not going to be bottle service and DJs.”
The cool, cheetah-printed kickback is supposed for a barely older demographic who’s over the membership scene however “nonetheless desires to go have an evening out.”
“They’ve been there, they’ve finished that, they don’t wish to spend that kind of cash anymore,” Dustin says, including that at Drai’s Supper Membership lounge, “You don’t must be up till 4 a.m. simply to have a very good evening.”
Just like the hospitality group’s different areas, Dustin has excessive hopes that his new Manhattan spot — that includes nightly reside music and an beautiful grand piano — will entice high-caliber clientele en masse.
“Anytime a star comes by means of our doorways, they’re handled in such a means the place they wish to come again,” he says. “Not simply celebrities, however each particular person must get that five-star, 10 out of 10, top-of-the-line service.”
Drai’s Supper Membership will start accepting reservations beginning April 22 and formally opens Might 1.
