After thirteen years of providing Toronto with some of the country’s most luxurious French desserts, Delysées has expanded to open its very first restaurant. It comes in the form of a French Moroccan champagne bar in Yorkdale Mall named Campaniae that is exclusively serving the LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) Group.
Like the dessert boutique, Campaniae by Delysées easily fits in alongside the mall’s high-end retailers. Designed by co-owner Khariz Naggar, everything from the marble tops and velvet drapes to the cushioned seating and antique mirrors surrounding the bar offer a luxe atmosphere inspired by Middle Eastern influence. Perhaps the most stunning details of all radiates from the decadent, custom-made chandeliers which dazzle the dining room, and the wall decorated with 1,200 leaves of 24-karat gold which Khariz added one-by-one.
“Khariz wanted to create a space that extremely different from anything that’s in the mall,” says Fred Naggar, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife.
The menu, too, is entirely as Campanaie serves up tapas inspired by Morrocan flavours as an homage to Fred’s mother who hails from Casablanca.
“This is the food that I always grew up with,” Fred says, noting his mother actually helped trained some of the restaurant’s chefs. “It’s her dream come true to enter one of the best malls in Canada with her food at one of the most beautiful places in the mall.”
Currently limited, the menu at Campaniae consists of light plates with a modern touch, as evident with the merguez couscous with sweet vegetables. (Fred says it took a month and a half to find the “perfect” merguez, believing it to be the key to a good couscous.) Other dishes include various salads, sea bass mixed with tabouleh, and the traditional dish Moroccan beef cigars (fried filo dough filled with beef and traditional spices).
“We find people want to have a little bit less, but a little bit more with different choices,” says Fred. “They want to talk about each of them and they want to share.”
Of course, with Delysées specialties, Campaniae offers world-class and exclusive desserts, with some also taking on a middle eastern inspiration, like the crispy Egyptian kunafa.
From the champagne bar, customers can get a range of brands under the LVMH Group, including, among many others, Don Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, and Volcan—which is thought to produce some of the best high-end tequilas in the world. Campaniae is one of a limited number of restaurants that serve it.
Once Campaniae has settled upon its opening, Fred says they will soon be hosting champagne and wine tastings and be opening for private bookings.
“We’ve already had requests from a lot of corporate customers of ours because we are surrounded by the best,” says Fred. “A lot of the retailers around us do look for what we offer, which is a beautiful space to take out their clients.”
Though Campaniae represents a whole new venture into restaurants, Fred assures it does not mark the end of the Delysées brand. In fact, the luxury boutique is expanding west in Vancouver and east to Montréal by the end of the year.
“We’re riding a really great wave and luckily for us, people have loved our brand,” he says. “Our team is quite exquisite when it comes to helping out and launching a restaurant, which is a totally different business than desserts, but I feel blessed with how the launch went.”
