WORK • Wednesday Routine
RYAN CHETIYAWARDANA (AKA MR LYAN) • founder • Lyaness & Seed Library
Neighbourhood you work in: Southbank & Shoreditch
Neighbourhood you live in: Hoxton
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Wednesday is always a good day, as although the beginning of the week involves management calls with all the bars and the Mr Lyan Studio teams, on Wednesdays, I’m in with the Lyaness team. Lyaness has a big menu run which takes a whole year, and although we've just launched a new Collaboration Menu (which replaces our Cookbook 3.0 menu, named the world's best cocktail menu), we start on the new one almost straight away.
What’s on the agenda for today?
We have some filming, our Lyaness creative meeting, then I have lunch with some of my old mentors and dearest friends from the trade – this is a raucous affair that balances a huge amount of warmth and inspiration. Craig has taught me so much with his ability to cut to the chase, Dawn has one of the best and most inspiring palates and perspectives in the world (and she's a Master of Wine so the wine is always killer), Mitch has been an incredible modern influence on what attention to detail and practice can bring, and Dave is my favourite writer, speaker and educator in the world. Good wine, good food and good conversation means it's a very good day.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I have a strong week of dinners! Having been to some of London's much-loved, as well as new spots (Black Axe Mangal x Rita's, Planque, Ibai, AngloThai), I’m off to Chicago, where we’re working on a collaboration at After (Chef Curtis Duffy's cocktail bar). I’m very excited to be dining at Ever with the team.
How about a little leisure or culture?
One of my favourite aspects of London life is the amazing cultural institutions that are free across the city – from the world famous V&A, British Museum and the Tate Modern to more contemporary ones like the Barbican, Hayward, ICA and Gagosian.
Any weekend getaways?
Often I'll try and cover quite a bit in a trip, and food is my best go-to guide (hence the premise for our new show, Mr Lyan’s Taste Trips!). There's been a wealth of new spots from friends outside of London in beautiful surroundings (Mark Birchall at Moor Hall, Merlin Labron-Johnson at Osip, Nicholas Balfe at HOLM), so these are often the jumping-off point for weekend trips.
What store or service do you always recommend?
So many friends in creative worlds kill themselves each year over tax returns, and I wholeheartedly recommend handing it over to an accountant to run. Seems so obvious, but the reaction from friends has been so positive when they get to take this off their plate. Store-wise, I always recommend the Newington Green Fruit & Veg shop for some really superlative produce.