Sakura Brand Experience
The Story team collaborated with Sake no Hana, a Japanese restaurant in Mayfair, to create a blossom-filled venue celebrating Sakura, the season of blooming cherry blossoms in Japan.
Event Brief
This spring has seen the Story team working closely with Japanese restaurant Sake no Hana, part of the Tao group, to transform their Mayfair restaurant into a blossom filled venue to celebrate Sakura, the season of blossoming blossom trees in Japan.
Story received the brief at the beginning of the year to design a space that celebrated this magical time of year and would serve to draw diners to the bar to experience the limited edition menu. The seasonal spectacle is celebrated by feasting and drinking sake under the boughs of the blooming Sakura trees, a practice originated thousands of years ago when Emperor Saga of the Heian Period would host parties underneath the branches.
Delivery
Sake no Hana immerses diners in the beauty of “Yozakura,” the Japanese tradition of nighttime cherry blossom viewing. The restaurant’s interior is transformed into a breathtaking floral spectacle, with a ceiling adorned with delicate blossoms, tall trees laden with petals, and a grassed bar floor. As the day progresses, falling blossom petals gently accumulate on the “grass,” while digital projections on bamboo walls create a mesmerizing display of fluttering blossoms.
In keeping with the Yozakura theme, the restaurant offers a special menu featuring limited-edition dishes, accompanying Haiku poems, and interactive cocktails that change with each spray from an atomizer. As night falls, the blossom trees within the restaurant illuminate with hundreds of fairy lights, mirroring the enchanting beauty of a starlit sky.
