The Hall by Louis Vuitton takes its name from the Guangdong Hall at Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li shopping mall. This urban landmark once served as a Cantonese merchants’ gathering place more than 100 years ago.
Formerly a retail space for luxury brand pop-ups before Louis Vuitton took over, The Hall is across the street from the three-story flagship, offering a full range of products from the French luxury house. Spanning more than 2,000 square meters, the Chengdu Maison is the third for Louis Vuitton in the country. It opened nine months ago.
Larger-than-life panda figurines and hot air balloons greet visitors at The Hall’s courtyard entrance. The vibrantly colored sculptures have already gone viral on Chinese social media in the months leading up to the opening.
According to Vuitton, the bistro-like restaurant offers a seasonal menu featuring pan-European flavors and classic dishes from both French and Mediterranean cuisine. Local produce sourced from the mountainous Ya’an city in the western part of Sichuan, China, such as Sichuan truffle and Oscietra, add some refined local flavors. The restaurant will serve wine, including selections from the Jura, the birthplace of founder Louis Vuitton.
Starting Thursday, foodies can secure a spot at the 60-seat restaurant via telephone to experience lunch, dinner and afternoon tea services. According to Yunmi, a Shanghai, China-based restaurant group in charge of operating The Hall, the restaurant has already been booked out for the balance of the year.
Vuitton appointed Michelin-star chef Olivier Elzer as its first guest chef, who has created a menu that blends local flavors with French finesse. Every six months, the restaurant will be inviting Michelin-star chefs from China or abroad to carry out seasonal menus and present a genuine sense of “Art of Travel.”
Exuding a calm and peaceful ambiance, The Hall is furnished with furniture and objects from the luxury house’s Objets Nomades collection.
A coral leather-embellished chandelier takes center stage across the two floors of the restaurant. Designed by Swiss architecture firm Atelier Oï, the fixture evokes the image of a traditional Sichuan hotpot.
Staying in line with Vuitton traditions, the restaurant is also adorned by artworks from noted contemporary Chinese artists, including Lu Xinjian, Zhou Yilun and Nanchuan Daocheng. A set of bright red and orange paper sculptures made out of Louis Vuitton shopping bags and combined with ancient Chinese stone sculptures add an element of surprise to one corner of the restaurant.
To create more buzz around the restaurant opening and engage with the Gen Z audience, Louis Vuitton linked up with local rapper MaSiWei to create an original song called “Shazi Fan” or “What’s Your Style” on the eve of the event.
On the morning of the restaurant opening, Louis Vuitton launched an interactive game on Wechat mini program called “Mah Jump,” which gets its name from Chengdu’s popular mahjong culture.
The game takes the player through major themes reflecting Chengdu today, including traditional and modern city walks, hotpot and nightlife experiences, tea culture in the Qingcheng Mountain and slow life.
A month before The Hall’s launch, Vuitton added Chengdu as a new destination to the Louis Vuitton City Guides. The brand enlisted world-renowned Chinese architect Liu Jiakun as the guest editor of Chengdu City Guide.
Based in his hometown of Chengdu, Liu has created some of the city’s most celebrated works, including the sweeping Chengdu MoCA in the High-Tech Zone and the iconic West Village, an open courtyard-style mixed-use space in Chengdu’s northwest.
The Hall is Louis Vuitton’s fifth hospitality venture in the past two years and the fourth in the Asian market. Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of Vuitton, has hinted that more eateries and even hotels could be in the works for the megabrand.
In 2020, Louis Vuitton opened its first Vuitton Café and restaurant at its flagship boutique in Osaka, Japan, followed by an LV Café and chocolate shop a year later at the Ginza Namiki flagship in Tokyo, Japan.
In March this year, the brand opened a pop-up restaurant in Seoul’s Gangnam district in South Korea. This summer, the French luxury giant opened a seasonal eatery called Mory Sacko close to a Louis Vuitton store in Saint-Tropez.
Later this month, Vuitton will open at its Paris, France, headquarters the LV Dream space, which will include a café and chocolate shop run by Maxime Frédéric, the head pastry chef at the neighboring Cheval Blanc Paris hotel which, like Vuitton, belongs to luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
On the morning of the restaurant opening, Louis Vuitton launched an interactive game on Wechat mini program called “Mah Jump,” which gets its name from Chengdu’s popular mahjong culture.
The game takes the player through major themes reflecting Chengdu today, including traditional and modern city walks, hotpot and nightlife experiences, tea culture in the Qingcheng Mountain and slow life.
A month before The Hall’s launch, Vuitton added Chengdu as a new destination to the Louis Vuitton City Guides. The brand enlisted world-renowned Chinese architect Liu Jiakun as the guest editor of Chengdu City Guide.
Based in his hometown of Chengdu, Liu has created some of the city’s most celebrated works, including the sweeping Chengdu MoCA in the High-Tech Zone and the iconic West Village, an open courtyard-style mixed-use space in Chengdu’s northwest.
The Hall is Louis Vuitton’s fifth hospitality venture in the past two years and the fourth in the Asian market. Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of Vuitton, has hinted that more eateries and even hotels could be in the works for the megabrand.
In 2020, Louis Vuitton opened its first Vuitton Café and restaurant at its flagship boutique in Osaka, Japan, followed by an LV Café and chocolate shop a year later at the Ginza Namiki flagship in Tokyo, Japan.
In March this year, the brand opened a pop-up restaurant in Seoul’s Gangnam district in South Korea. This summer, the French luxury giant opened a seasonal eatery called Mory Sacko close to a Louis Vuitton store in Saint-Tropez.
Later this month, Vuitton will open at its Paris, France, headquarters the LV Dream space, which will include a café and chocolate shop run by Maxime Frédéric, the head pastry chef at the neighboring Cheval Blanc Paris hotel which, like Vuitton, belongs to luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
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