Lowering the Seven Veils of Success
Washington, D.C.’s Mie N Yu
Brings in Dignitaries and Dollars With Exotic Décor

By Jenny Adams


Trading on a cosmopolitan concept by design and brand is nothing new in the great wide world of hospitality. Trader Vic (Victor Bergeron) understood the inherent value of transporting guests to exotic and far-flung places with everything from the décor to drinks at the highly successful chain of Polynesian restaurants and bars he founded all the way back in 1934.


But credit the father and son team of Jack and John Boyle with taking the idea of guest globalism to grand new heights with Mie N Yu, a Washington, D.C., venue that boasts all the multi-culturalism of a United Nations assembly and then some. Under one worldly roof, in the heart of America’s capital, it stands as a monument not to a revered president, but rather to people, places, history, and yes, profit.With each wall, room, appetizer and form of entertainment, this colorful and cutting-edge restaurant/lounge/club hybrid offers up diverse and delicious tastes of the planet to patrons.
Feast for the Senses


Along with a design team from Core Architecture, Boyle, a silent proprietor, and son, John, owner of Nation, Modern and Five in D.C., set out in 2003 to create a space, inspired by John’s love of travel, that would blend the striking aspects of the Silk Road with an eclectic food and wine menu –– transforming a patron’s evening into an experience instead of merely dinner and drinks.


Their success in bringing together five rooms and two floors spanning several cultures while never relinquishing a unified flow is apparent in rave reviews from the press and the public, and exemplified by the Silver Award bestowed on Mie N Yu by the International Interior Design

Association. As alluring as the menus, its atmosphere, filled with candlelight bouncing off of Martini glasses and paper lanterns, as ancient drum beats pulse –– giving story to a belly dancer’s scarves –– is summed up in the venue’s logo: “A Feast for the Senses.”


Jewels for the Eyes
Met by a copious host staff, new guests are led through the venue on a personalized room-by-room tour. The downstairs Colonial Hong Kong bar encompasses a wooden English bar inlaid with old Mahjong tiles, with seating for 25 at the bar and an additional 30 at surrounding tables. Bartenders and DJs mix simultaneously in this room since the DJ booth is recessed into the wall behind the bar, set amidst premium bottles and a golden statue of Buddha. Guests get VIP treatment as a standard with all-night bottle service throughout the establishment –– from the Turkish Tent room, where an imported tent encloses patrons while hanging lanterns splash light onto hydraulic tables, lowered to achieve the perfect level for seating on plush couches –– to the Moroccan Bazaar, a reproduction of an African marketplace, with round tables shrouded in netting. This room is a favorite for dignitaries. “Especially in D.C.,” Assistant General Manager Victoria Caplick says, “because of the privacy and prestige.” On the second floor, bartenders in the Venetian Bar and Lounge satiate the thirsty while overlooking the Birdcage, the chef’s private tasting table made of wrought iron and suspended from the ceiling. The Birdcage seats seven, has a $500 dollar minimum and a different food and beverage menu every night. In the Baroque Room, red-velvet royalty meets the city of democracy, and couples find seclusion in the adjoining Love Nests. And in the pink hue of the exotic Tibetan Lounge, another DJ booth provides extra ambiance upstairs in a space commonly reserved for private gatherings.


Sultan-Sized Service
While the décor of Mie N Yu has sent a verbal mélange off local lips, it is the sparkling bar service and late-night appeal that sends its alcohol revenue through the star-lit ceiling. “On weekends, there are a minimum of 300 people coming through both bars — just the bars,” Caplick says. To handle the load, there are around 20 employees for the front of the house each shift. Each bartender is put through thorough training to ensure service will not suffer when the night is hectic. There also is a three-year experience prerequisite to even consider a resume, which made hiring difficult when the establishment first opened, but it has meant a low turnover in the long run. “In the hospitality business, you want your servers to connect with guests,” she says,“but ours really do.” All employees are encouraged to get out from their positions when possible, mingle with customers, offer tours and explain the native origins of all the tiny details in the venue.


Persian Profits
Complimenting the sparkling service is a superlative wine, sake and Martini list. Beverage Manager Saeed Bennani, who hails from Casablanca, Morocco, ensures the drinks are on the cutting edge by searching out new liquors on a global scale. And when those become commonplace to the Mie N Yu regulars? “Sometimes I find drinks that I remove,” he admits, “because I think we should go one level up.”


With the well bar cost starting at around $18, Mie N Yu pulls 50 percent of its profits from bar sales. “Dollar-wise, we sell in liquor an average of about $28,000 a week; wine we sell an average of about $20,000 a week, and then beer is much lower at about $5,500,” says General

Manager Oren Molovinsky.


“It is very high volume here,” Caplick says. “But it’s also that our wine list and cocktail list is upscale.”
Mixing in the Mystical


Unable and unwilling to obtain a license to become a dance club after hours, Mie N Yu operators skirt the issue by saying anything goes. “There is not a designed dance floor,” Caplick says. “People can dance where ever they want ... and people get up and dance for sure.” DJs have begun spinning seven nights a week since January of 2005, mixing House with a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern flair. “I listen to more Arabic music here than I listened to when I was home in Morocco,” Bennani says.


David Troust, director of sales and marketing, has aided the strategic sway into a DJ destination. “More and more the DJs are bringing people by; it’s definitely a see-and-be-seen sort of place.”


To compliment the new DJ trend, Caplick and Troust contacted Stoli and Effen Vodka last year and began co-producing CDs featuring in house DJ Dub’s mixes, given free to all patrons who mention enjoying the music. The CDs also are used for off-premise promotions Mie N Yu has been aligned with since inception such as the Red Bull Call of the Wild Party held on an island in the middle of the Potomac. Another draw for locals is the new Tasting Series. The fourth one held recently offered customers an evening in the Venetian Lounge sipping Champagne, scotch, port and Paso Robles wine, paired with Executive Chef Tim Elliott’s appetizers for a mere $35 a ticket.
Gazing down the Venetian Bar or peaking inside a Love Nest, one would notice that this club concept has become the Eden of Washington’s classier crowd. The red and black lacquered chairs lining the Hong Kong Bar are filled each night now, and after 11 p.m. there is a wait for a drink. The staff of Mie N Yu is not satisfied with mere customer satisfaction, however –– far from it. The concept is evolution.


“You never want to fall into disrepair,” Troust says. “You never want to be Mie N Yu and we look the same every year.” NCB