“Hey, can we smoke in right here?” requested the actress Natasha Lyonne, 43, in a leopard print gown, holding a pack of cigarettes. She was standing contained in the newly opened Caviar Kaspia on the Higher East Aspect, a sister restaurant to the unique in Paris. On Friday, Lauren Santo Domingo, the socialite and co-founder of Moda Operandi, hosted a celebration there to kick off New York Style Week.

“Not when the mayor is right here!” Ms. Santo Domingo, 46, responded.

“Come on, you’re the proprietor!” Ms. Lyonne mentioned, turning to Sarah Senbahar. Ms. Senbahar and her husband and property developer, Izak Senbahar, personal The Mark Lodge in New York, which had partnered with Caviar Kaspia as a part of the Parisian restaurant’s international growth.

The visitor listing of celebrities, fashionistas and the wealthy and highly effective for the night included Mayor Eric Adams, nattily wearing a burgundy blazer (“It’s certainly one of my favourite colours. I just like the wine-ish coloration,” he mentioned), who was chatting with Marie-Chantal, the Crown Princess of Greece and Princess of Denmark, and the style designer Tory Burch. The pop singer Lily Allen, the actor Justin Theroux and the previous political aide Huma Abedin stood close by. Beneficiant dollops of Osetra caviar have been served on twice-baked potatoes (the dish can value anyplace from $95 to $540, relying on the kind and quantity of caviar), with the champagne and vodka freely flowing.

There’s a permissive sensibility to the unique Caviar Kaspia, situated on Place de la Madeleine in Paris’s eighth arrondissement. With its distinctive aquamarine desk linens, Limoges porcelain and cozy old-world décor, the restaurant is named a watering gap the place celebrities, designers and vogue editors collect throughout couture and ready-to-wear vogue weeks. Rihanna stayed up till near 4 a.m. on the restaurant to debate her first being pregnant (after her Tremendous Bowl efficiency, we now know she is into her second) with Vogue final 12 months. Jay-Z and Beyoncé are identified to pop in after they’re on the town. Yves Saint Laurent, Virgil Abloh and Tom Ford have been frequent patrons, to call only a few of the various designers who’ve favored the joint. Caviar Kaspia is so beloved that persons are keen on nicking the eatery’s turquoise blue ashtray as a memento (which might fetch near $100 on eBay).

“I adore it a lot. It’s really a clubhouse the place I at all times run into individuals, and I swear I at all times have an excellent time,” mentioned Mel Ottenberg, the editor in chief of Interview Journal.

“We’re a bit like a touring circus,” mentioned Ms. Santo Domingo, referring to the style editors and different personalities to whom she’s shut, a clique that features the socialite Derek Blasberg; Vogue’s international contributing vogue editor at giant, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson; W’s editor in chief, Sara Moonves; WSJ. Journal’s editor in chief, Kristina O’Neill; and Vogue’s artistic editorial director, Mark Guiducci, amongst others — all of whom have been in attendance that night on the restaurant’s new Higher East Aspect location.

“Throughout vogue week, Caviar Kaspia is like our cafeteria,” she mentioned.

Within the final three years, Caviar Kaspia has aggressively expanded internationally, first opening in Dubai simply two years in the past, adopted by new places in São Paulo, Saint Tropez, London and Los Angeles. New York’s Caviar Kaspia got here into being after the lease for the clothes and accent model Zadig & Voltaire’s location beneath The Mark Lodge expired on the finish of 2021. Mr. Senbahar had noticed how prospects at his resort loved ordering caviar, and he was a longtime fan of the unique restaurant. He approached Ramon Mac-Crohon, the chief govt of Caviar Kaspia, to see if he can be curious about a partnership.

“When Izak referred to as me, I couldn’t consider a greater deal with,” mentioned Mr. Mac-Crohon, 48, who had beforehand experimented with a downtown pop-up within the metropolis in 2016. They rapidly introduced within the French inside decorator Jacques Grange — chargeable for the lavish look of The Mark — to do the décor. Although that Friday night was the primary night time the restaurant was opening its doorways, the area wasn’t completed, and a bit supposed to be the bar was discreetly partitioned off with black curtains, forcing cocktails to be served exterior, the place the paparazzi lurked close by.

Mr. Mac-Crohon mentioned the social gathering must be thought of a “grand mushy opening.”

Caviar Kaspia was based in 1927 by the Russian émigré Arcady Fixon, who arrived in Paris after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. By then, French society had acquired a style for the uncommon delicacy, which Russians had been consuming for over a century. Known as “black gold,” caviar has lengthy been prized by conquerors and kings, czars and emperors. In accordance with Inga Saffron’s ebook “Caviar: The Unusual Historical past and Unsure Way forward for the World’s Most Coveted Delicacy,” Winston Churchill requested 25 kilos of it in 1941 when he dispatched Lord Beaverbrook as a state dignitary to debate the battle with Joseph Stalin. Caviar and champagne events have been so widespread within the Twenties in Paris that F. Scott Fitzgerald as soon as complained that serving it was “the peak of affectation.”

Caviar Kaspia is now owned by Mr. Mac-Crohon’s household, who additionally depend the restaurant Maison de la Truffe amongst their properties.

Many years in the past, wild caviar was as soon as so uncommon it may command outrageous costs. At the moment — due to overfishing that has led the sturgeons of the Caspian and Black Seas to be thought of an endangered species — wild beluga caviar is banned in the USA. However the rise of farmed caviar within the final twenty years has made the delicacy extra obtainable and accessible than it as soon as was, with caviar bars popping up throughout the nation in addition to direct-to-consumer caviar corporations providing the meals at extra inexpensive costs.

Mr. Mac-Crohon mentioned Caviar Kaspia served solely farmed caviar from the USA, Bulgaria and Italy.

Nonetheless, amount is totally different from high quality within the universe of Caviar Kaspia. “There’s one query that I hate, which journalists typically ask me, which is, is caviar getting democratized? And the reply isn’t any,” Mr. Mac-Crohon mentioned. “There are nonetheless totally different ranges of caviar. What is occurring is that caviar now has develop into cool. Earlier than, caviar was for very particular events, just for Christmas, New 12 months’s Eve or a birthday.”

However, the meals’s wider availability helps to elucidate why his restaurant has leaned into being extra of a vacation spot than a delicacy. Whether or not its arrival in New York Metropolis will probably be successful is to be decided. However with the Parisian pastry and tea store Ladurée now in SoHo and the Higher East Aspect, and the members-only London Membership, Casa Cruz, having not too long ago opened an outpost on 61st Road, it’s not troublesome to think about New Yorkers embracing this new institution as a spot to have a good time.

The mayor, who mentioned he preferred attending New York Style Week occasions as a result of it “feeds the whole economic system” — he hoped to make it to the Michael Kors present — was adamant that “New York Metropolis is having a comeback.”

By 11 p.m., Mr. Adams had left, however the social gathering was nonetheless thrumming alongside, with a handful of visitors gathered round a protracted banquette. Extra vodka had been introduced out by the waiters. Bowls of ice, containing open tins of caviar, sat sweating on the tables, with Caviar Kaspia’s mother-of-pearl spoons casually resting close by (steel or plastic is understood to oxidize the roe). The social gathering was winding down. Quickly, the style set would migrate to London for the following assortment of exhibits.

Ms. Santo Domingo mentioned she may think about somebody having a commencement social gathering at Caviar Kaspia. Ms. Burch and Mr. Ottenberg each mentioned that they had loved going to Caviar Kaspia in Paris with their mother and father.

Its attraction, nevertheless, could also be far more easy: “It’s cozy there,” Ms. Burch, 56, mentioned.

“For while you don’t have time to fly to Paris,” Mr. Senbahar, 64, mentioned. “I simply thought we may carry a little bit little bit of Paris to New York.”