Origin
Vaalbara represents the global convergence of food, music, and culture.
Vaalbara is the vision of Brian Mencher - a New York City entertainment attorney turned culinary student and line cook turned restauranteur. Influenced by Guerilla Cafe, an urban-hip cafe, located in Berkeley, CA, Brian wanted to fuse its concept together with one of his record label clients - Nomadic Wax, a global underground music production company. He envisioned a restaurant driven, not only by high-quality food and service, but by music and culture. Like Guerilla Cafe, that provided you a picture and description of a community leader or pioneer (think Nelson Mandella, Bruce Lee, or Jimi Hendrix PROVIDE LINK TO VIDEO) instead of a number to identify your order, Brian wanted to feature the community of artists represented by Nomadic Wax.
From this single idea, the concept (then unnamed) was born. He wanted the music and culture to influence the entire dining experience - from ingredient choices and cooking styles to background music and design.
Brian’s vision is a community-based restaurant, that features organic, local ingredients; high-quality food preparation, cooking technique, and plating presentation; direct trade relationships with purveyors in other countries; and an introduction to musical artists from all over the world.
To borrow a slogan from Chef Carles Abellan of Commerc 24 in Barcelona, the Vaalbara concept is “Glocal” - a modern food style deeply rooted in its own geographical and cultural perspective, but that “knows no barriers or frontiers” in the use and incorporation of global ingredients and cooking styles.
One Earth. A time in history when the cultures of the world are accessible to modern-day explorers. A convergence of food, music, and culture. This is the Vaalbara concept.
Vaalbara is the first known supercontinent on Earth. Over 3.1 billion years ago, two land masses, Kaapvaal and Pilbara, created one supercontinent named Vaalbara. Our concept is the modern interpretation of this supercontinent – it imagines the time of Vaalbara, where exploration and discovery of all cultures by land alone would have been possible, albeit through arduous journeys. One Earth.
