It always helps to have a well-informed local on the payroll.
Nikki Beach CEO Lucia Penrod was recently reminded of how helpful that can be when Célia Gumbau-Serra, the president of the company’s beach club division who was born in Cannes, reached out with a piece of real estate gossip. “She’s very well-connected and she called to say, ‘You’re not going to believe this but there is a family in Cannes that has been in business for 37 years and they want to retire.’ I thought she was kidding. Can you imagine? A beach club location for sale in Cannes in 2023? It felt too good to be true.”
Related Stories
Nikki Beach jumped at the chance to secure the location in Cannes where the company has hosted pop-ups of its luxury beach club concept for two decades during the film festival, most notably in front of the Carlton Hotel. But when they purchased the beachfront property — formerly Long Beach located on the Croisette directly in front of the J.W. Marriott — Penrod said opening a permanent Nikki Beach on the French Riviera might come across as “overkill” due to other outposts in nearby St. Tropez and Monaco.
“We thought, OK, maybe it’s time we explore a different concept that is a restaurant that not only could satisfy the needs for an urban location in Cannes but also give us the chance to take our DNA to other locations that are not specifically summer destinations,” added Penrod, who runs the company with husband Jack Penrod, who serves as founder and chairman.
That led the Nikki Beach team to zero in on a new restaurant concept called Lucia that boasts a Mediterranean menu inspired by “Cuisine du Soleil” that shifts four times a year with the seasons, décor that splits from Nikki Beach’s “less is more” aesthetic to what Penrod calls “more is more” maximalism achieved with the help of Nikki Beach global interior designer Remi Viale and artist Chiara Perano. “It’s very, very colorful, very fun, very alive,” Penrod explains of the space that mixes patterns and colors. “The tables have pattern designs, the menus also have pattern designs. It’s like a playground for us.” On that note, they also plan to have surprise entertainment that blends seamlessly into the dining experience (much like the DJ booth which is hidden inside a piano).
The menu, which Penrod praises for its creativity under the direction of corporate executive chef Alessandro Pizza and Lucia’s own executive chef Yvon Mbiavanga with influences that stretch from the Mediterranean to Italy, Spain, Turkey and Lebanon, among others. It features starters like a runner beans and asparagus salad with clementines, whipped ricotta and mint olive oil, citrus sea bass carpaccio, tuna crudo a la niçoise, and main dishes including pan seared sea bream, beef tartare, sisteron lamb cutlets and and gratinated cavatelli Nerano, among others.
About the name, it also helps to have inspiration in-house. “I’ve always liked my name, but to tell you the truth, I never ever thought of having a business named after me but like so many of the things that we do, it came about organically,” Penrod explains. “The staff came to me and said they did some research to find that the name Lucia comes from the Latin work for lux and is used in so many different countries to mean light, sunshine, bright, life. I’ve always liked my name for that and I said, ‘OK, let’s go for it.”
