Ready for some seriously chic eats? This month, NYC-born Italian hot spot Scarpetta is unveiling its second international location, and its first outpost in Asia—konnichi wa, Tokyo! John Meadow, founder and president of LDV Hospitality, fills us in on Scarpetta’s plans for delicious world domination, one pasta or crudo at a time.
Why is Scarpetta headed to Tokyo next?
We opened our first international location in London at the Bulgari Hotel in 2019, and it was a wonderful experience, so we decided to focus on international growth and made a map of our favorite places to go. Tokyo was certainly one of them, and it’s the right place for us to open in Asia. We signed that deal back in 2019, so it’s been a long time coming, between COVID and construction, but the patience and perseverance paid off, and we’re opening on September 28!
SCARPETTA
What do you love about Tokyo’s dining scene and culture?
I always say, if you want the best Neapolitan pizza, go to Tokyo; if you want the best bench-made Florentine leather shoes, go to Tokyo. They’re the ultimate artisans and masters of their crafts—the intensity, the passion, the conviction! I think that our Japanese location will be the best-run Scarpetta, due to their discipline and dedication. It’s been inspiring to work with a Japanese team; there’s so much passion for their respective crafts. It’s also an educated dining public that wants quality product and pays attention to all the details.
What will the menu there be like?
With every location, we do two-thirds Scarpetta, one-third localized everything—design, service approach, and most importantly, the menus. Japan has extraordinary ingredients, and seasonality is so fundamental to their way of living. In New York, we have four menu changes per year; in Tokyo, we intend to have six, and with slight modifications to the flavor profile across the menu—less salt and more exotic vegetables. Obviously, there’s also access to some of the best seafood in the world there, so we’re doing a whole crudo bar for the first time. It’s like an Italian version of a sushi bar or omakase concept, with the Italian application of pairing the right olive oils and salts with pedigreed sushi skill. There’s a lot of the same passion for sourcing and precise knife cuts in Japanese and Italian cuisine, too.
SCARPETTA
What’s the process been like with this opening?
Our Tokyo location’s chef was hired almost a year ago, so he’s had some time in his own home, cooking everything through a series of lockdowns. He kept taking the recipes, cooking the dishes, before ever coming to New York to train. It’s a whole next level of intensity, in a good way. For the space, we worked with designer Jun Aizaki, who’s from Tokyo but his studio, Crème Design, has been in Brooklyn for 25 years. It was good to have that history and be able to design the restaurant with a Tokyo designer based in New York. The Tokyo location’s general manager came here to train for a full two months; now, through the visa process, we’re able to send roughly six people for about four months, and I can go back and forth.
What’s the process been like with this opening?
Our Tokyo location’s chef was hired almost a year ago, so he’s had some time in his own home, cooking everything through a series of lockdowns. He kept taking the recipes, cooking the dishes, before ever coming to New York to train. It’s a whole next level of intensity, in a good way. For the space, we worked with designer Jun Aizaki, who’s from Tokyo but his studio, Crème Design, has been in Brooklyn for 25 years. It was good to have that history and be able to design the restaurant with a Tokyo designer based in New York. The Tokyo location’s general manager came here to train for a full two months; now, through the visa process, we’re able to send roughly six people for about four months, and I can go back and forth.
How much have you been in Tokyo to work on the opening?
I haven’t been there for 10 years; the country’s been restrictive with lockdowns, so we haven’t been able to go. So it’s been a bizarre, intense process for almost two years now—7 a.m. or 9 p.m. Zoom meetings with 20 people on them, three translators. It’s hard-core! I finally get to go in a couple of weeks.
SCARPETTA
Where will you be opening internationally next?
We’re opening in Doha, Qatar, before the World Cup, and also in Rome and Rio. The Doha location is in the Waldorf Astoria, a spectacular, stunning hotel. Every market is different—Doha is a market of opulence, grand, glam, polished, fancy, proper; not uptight, but just really elevated materials. It’s probably the most intense, indulgent design we’ve ever had. For the Tokyo location, it’s about artisans, intimate, wabi-sabi, a little bit funky. Rome and Rio will be opening in 2023.
How did you choose these exotic cities?
Rome, Rio, and Tokyo are my favorite cities in the world that mean something to me, and with Doha, opening there before the World Cup is an awesome, spectacular thing to be a part of. On a personal basis, a moment of COVID clarity for me was, “You chose this crazy industry and career out of pure passion and love, so live it.” I look back on my career, and I’ve had some successes and many failures; I’ve been blessed with having wonderful people around me, but I did a lot of transactional restaurants in my career, responding to developers’ needs or wants, and transactional restaurants have never worked for me. Opening restaurants that our team wants to create and spend time in, that’s where we found our success.
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