Celebrity-loved hospitality brand Drai’s quietly opened its first-ever East Coast venture: a New York City supper club serving elegance and French-American cuisine.
“Drai’s is a 30-year-old brand. It started in Los Angeles when I was born back in 1993, and it was originally a French restaurant,” Drai’s Management Group president Dustin Drai tells Page Six exclusively.
While the nightlife brand has expanded with a nightclub, beach club and after-hours destination in Las Vegas frequented by stars like Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez and Odell Beckham Jr., the son of Drai’s founder Victor Drai had his eyes set on “going back to [their] roots.”
“What better way to do that than go back to what Drai’s used to be and do an homage to the original Drai’s 30 years ago — but with a modern twist,” Dustin, 31, muses.
The new Meatpacking District-based dining experience — located in the iconic space once home to the shuttered nightclubs Nell’s and Up & Down — offers patrons an approachable yet imaginative menu of French-American fair by chef Yoo Hyun Suk like a sweet and savory tomato tarte, frog legs, steak au poivre and, for those not feeling the effects of President Trump’s tariffs, a $1,000 caviar service.
“You can buy an entire pound of caviar that will be the thousand-dollar dish,” Dustin says. “You have something extravagant that gets presented at the table.”
The nightlife aficionado emphasizes that “all [their] food is Instagram-able,” but that he has no interest in “going too overboard” and making the eatery “gimmicky.”
“It’s a mixture of just classic dishes, but each one has some element where you can take out your phone and take a picture,” he says.
The basement level of the venue was transformed into a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge with live music.
“It’s not a nightclub,” Dustin clarifies of the lower-level joint. “We’re going to focus on the cocktail program and really make it someplace where it’s not going to be bottle service and DJs.”
The cool, cheetah-printed kickback is meant for a slightly older demographic who is over the club scene but “still wants to go have a night out.”
“They’ve been there, they’ve done that, they don’t want to spend that type of money anymore,” Dustin says, adding that at Drai’s Supper Club lounge, “You don’t have to be up until 4 a.m. just to have a good night.”
Like the hospitality group’s other locations, Dustin has high hopes that his new Manhattan spot — featuring nightly live music and an exquisite grand piano — will attract high-caliber clientele en masse.
“Anytime a celebrity comes through our doors, they’re treated in such a way where they want to come back,” he says. “Not just celebrities, but every person needs to get that five-star, 10 out of 10, top-of-the-line service.”
Drai’s Supper Club will begin accepting reservations starting April 22 and officially opens May 1.
