Think luxury cars and luxury food. Living together.
Over there you’ve got your bright yellow Lamborghini and its high-end cousins, Audi, Jaguar, Ferrari, Maserati … Over here, your premium Italian wines, seafood and pasta.
The twain shall meet at Velocity Honolulu, a retail-dining complex like nothing you’ve ever seen. Like no one’s seen, actually. No model exists for it anywhere, said Brad Nicolai, president of JN Group.
“We sell works of art that can actually be driven,” Nicolai said “How do you couple what we do with the artistic effect of food?”
Or for that matter, why? The answer lies in the location and the opportunity. Velocity’s home will be on the first four floors of the new Symphony Honolulu condominium tower. The site appeals to a high-end demographic suited to what Velocity has to offer: a cafe with bar, restaurant with private dining room, wine shop, lash salon, blow-dry bar, menswear collection and cars, cars, cars.
Nicolai envisions an Italian cafe experience. “So you can take yourself back in time to when you were meandering down the Roman roads.”
OK, so maybe you’ve never done that, but at Velocity you can imagine it. Not that you get to sit in a Ferrari while you eat, or that your food will be delivered via Vespa. But the luxury automobiles will be within viewing distance, for aspirational purposes. (Maybe, after enough fine wine, you’ll be primed to buy one.)
The cafe and restaurant, to open in the spring, are as yet unnamed, but two chefs already are at the helm: Gianpaolo Raschi, whose Ristorante Guido in the seaside town of Rimini, Italy, has earned a Michelin star every year since 2008; and Maurizio Roberti, an Italian master chef, certified by Academia Barilla International as an ambassador for the cuisine worldwide.
Raschi will be the “signature chef” of the restaurant and the principal architect of the menu, traveling between Italy and Honolulu. Roberti — who has lived away from Italy for 25 years, most recently in Japan — becomes a Hawaii resident as of November, with the title of master chef and general manager.
The two have been in Honolulu for the last week introducing themselves to the local produce and seafood. Their aim is to source as much locally as possible, Roberti said, “without throwing away what is authentically Italian.”
It will be his job to see that the dishes are true to their Italian roots.
“Italy has an amazing 3,000-year-old history — and we’re looking at the future as well,” he said. “We’re not just a big plate of pasta with meatballs.”
In fact, forget about meatballs, he said. That’s an American creation “you won’t find in our place.”
Raschi’s restaurant, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, serves primarily seafood, and he expects the menu in Honolulu to also center on fruits of the sea.
With Roberti translating, Raschi said he advocates a simplicity of cooking that accentuates the primary ingredient. “All ingredients have the same value, from a lobster to the smallest lettuce leaf,” he said. “Every element has its importance and its own value.”
The chefs have discussed what Roberti calls “a primitive menu,” but have no specifics yet.
Roberti acknowledges it will be a challenge to merge Italian authenticity with the desire to use fresh, local ingredients. Everything from the water to the tomatoes will be different, he said, but a balance is possible.
“We can combine the soul of Italy with the soul of Hawaii, and we can make something new. But it’s still not going to be Americanized Italian.”
In other words, no meatballs.
Velocity’s vehicle showroom in the Symphony Honolulu, 888 Kapiolani Blvd., is scheduled for a soft opening in August, to encompass eight luxury automobile brands and eight motorcycle brands, combining the JN Exotics location on Kapiolani with its Audi dealership near the airport.
The men’s shop, called Sixty-One (for the year the company was established and which includes two barber’s chairs offering haircuts and shaves), plus the enoteca, or wine bar, should open by year’s end, and the restaurants next year.
