Australian design Ashley Sutton has once again teamed up with Dining Concepts to open Dear Lilly, an imaginative new restaurant and bar at Hong Kong’s IFC Mall.
Sutton, who was the creative force behind the likes of Hong Kong bars Ophelia, Iron Fairies and J.Boroski, has created a new venue inspired by great love affairs, offering business travellers a refreshing and imaginative take on corporate entertaining.
Dear Lilly is a place of love found and lost. Inspired by the hole-in-the-wall florists of Paris‘ most beautiful boulevards, the glass-clad space atop the IFC Mall is a treasure trove of WWI and WWII-era love letters, black and white portraits, vintage perfume bottles, bouquets of flowers and objects d’art sourced by Sutton.
“Dear Lilly is unlike anything I’ve ever done before,” says Sutton. “It’s an incredibly enchanting space filled with flowers, love letters and charming antique ornaments that I’ve sourced from around the world. I want people to step inside and feel like they’re in a fairy-tale.”
The floor of the new eatery is lined with heart-shaped marble inlays, each engraved with extracts from touching love letters sent by soldiers to their sweethearts during Europe’s great wars. The name of the restaurant, Dear Lilly, came from one of these heart-warming letters. Love letters and poems scrawled on scrolls of paper are also piled on the bar, and join antique typewriters, rolls of ribbon and other charming knick-knacks. Heart-shaped booths resembling oversized jewellery boxes are dressed in specially treated steel to give the appearance of tarnished sterling silver.
These inspiring interiors match contemporary European set and al la carte lunch and dinner menus that are perfectly suited for corporate dining. Highlights of the menus include slow-cooked octopus with roasted pepper salsa, rocket and seaweed hummus; New Zealand lamb cutlets; poached sea bass with herb crushed new potato and salsa verde; and Dear Lilly Heart, an indulgent raspberry and white chocolate dish.
Ideally suited for after-hour drinks, Dear Lilly’s cocktail list is classic heavy, with Parisian favourites from the 1920s complementing modern signature libations, including the Green Fairy, a sweet mix of Matusalem Platino Rum, green Chartreuse, yuzu juice, pineapple juice, and coconut water; and Mademoiselle Lilly, with vodka, Kwai Feh liqueur, Lillet Blanc, cranberry, lime, raspberry puree and homemade hibiscus syrup.
Dear Lilly serves contemporary European cuisine, with particular attention paid to the flavours of the Mediterranean. The restaurant offers both a set lunch and an à la carte menu. Available as either a two-course or three-course meal, the set lunch is the perfect choice for business executives.
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