Le Sushi Bar has been announced the winner of the 2020 “Restaurant & Bar Design Awards” for the Middle East and Africa Restaurant Category, a globally recognized annual competition that seeks the best of food and beverage spaces.
A virtual awards ceremony was held on Sunday. The edition hosted a new judging panel of 36 industry-leading figures working across design, architecture, hospitality, and lifestyle.
In its twelfth year, the competition attracted more than 800 entries from over 100 countries worldwide, where Le Sushi Bar in Lebanon took home the award for the MENA region.
“This award means so much as the architects, artists, and executors are all proudly Lebanese,” Christelle El-Drouby, Le Sushi Bar’s Communication Advisor told The961. “It is an important win for Lebanon because it highlights the immense wealth of creativity and technical ability in our country despite the little resources at hand.”
Originally established in 1998 by renowned restauranteur Mario Jr. Haddad, Le Sushi Bar remains one of the most distinctive restaurants and bars in Lebanon 22 years later.
Located in the heart of Downtown Beirut, it offers a unique restaurant and bar experience from lunch until late night services, carefully combining a contemporary take on fine Japanese cuisine with an extensive sake and wine list, and an aromatic cocktail menu.
Abundant in sophistication, Le Sushi Bar’s high-energy space was meticulously designed by internationally celebrated architect Gregory Gatsereliaone, who is considered one of the top 100 interior designers in the world, according to Architectural Digest.
“Gregory Gatserelia and I had worked together on several projects in the past and it took just one session for him to grasp what I had in mind. Here we are, a couple of years later, winners of the best restaurants and bar design award!” said Mario Jr. Haddad, owner of Le Sushi Bar.
The design is rather conceptual, presented in a fresh setting that is not the generic type of an ethnic restaurant, avoiding the visual confrontation with actual Japanese decoration and proposing impressions of Asia instead. Many elements come together to embody those Asian feels and give the place an interesting character.
“I proposed something that is different from everything I’ve done”, expressed Mr. Gatserelia. “It’s a self-interpretation of things, this is what I like.”
All those characteristics have made Le Sushi Bar a winner of this prestigious design award, as well as being the destination of choice for many Lebanese and international visitors to get a feel of an authentic influence from Asia to Lebanon.
