KYU NYC has never been just a restaurant. The Lafayette Street space, built around an open-fire kitchen and the communal spirit of yakiniku, has always operated at the intersection of food, architecture, and atmosphere. This February, it added fashion to that list.

For New York Fashion Week, KYU transformed its downtown dining room into a full runway and event space, hosting the NYFW presentation of Advisry, the CFDA-recognized menswear label founded by Keith Herron. 175 guests filled a room that, moments before, had been somewhere people came to share a meal. The reconfiguration felt natural. Exposed brick, original columns, soaring ceilings, stained antique glass, and the heat of an open flame are not the kinds of details you can fake or rent. They either exist in a space or they don’t.

Herron understood what he was working with. “KYU felt like the right tension for this show, intimate, raw, and slightly unexpected,” he said. “It mirrors where the collection lives.” Advisry’s menswear, precise in its tailoring and sharp in its conceptual framing, found a setting that could hold its weight.

After the runway, the night shifted again. A VIP dinner for forty to fifty guests, hosted by Herron, anchored the close of the evening around KYU’s Experience tasting menu. Two cocktails were crafted for the occasion: the Vesper Kiss, built on Himbrimi gin, Desolas Mezcal, sherry, bitter bianco, and lemon, and Meet Me At The London, made with Earl Grey-infused Himbrimi, lemon, toasted rice syrup, and sake ono.

“Our space is designed to be transformative, whether it’s a shared meal, a runway show, or a cultural gathering,” said Doni DiGiovanni, KYU’s Director of Events. “Hosting Advisry during NYFW is a natural extension of that vision.” It is a vision that downtown New York is starting to take seriously. KYU is not positioning itself as a restaurant that occasionally hosts events. It is a cultural destination that happens to serve some of the most interesting food in the city, and it is opening its doors accordingly.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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