About Gaia Group
Based in Hong Kong where it owns and operates its Hong Kong and mainland China restaurants, Gaia Group has emerged as one of Asia’s leading independent restaurant groups.
Synonymous with professionalism, the Group’s multicultural team of highly skilled and experienced F&B professionals is hand picked from the hospitality and restaurant business. Together, this partnership pursues its vision of Italian style and elegance, innovative chefs, authentic cuisine, quality ingredients, and cutting-edge design with a keen eye on location, and potential.
Gaia Group’s major strengths include:
- Extensive background in hospitality and restaurant management
- Instinctive eye for location and potential
- Investment in top quality design, fittings and maintenance
- Dedication to consistent quality in all aspects of restaurant operations
- Investment in marketing and public relations to maintain cutting edge market position
History
Gaia Group was founded in Hong Kong in 2000, with its first venture being the opening of the ultra glamorous Gaia restaurant in a prestigious new commercial development at 181 Queens Road Central.
Beside the Italian-inspired Millennium Square piazza complete with its own 'Spanish Steps' and tiered fountain, Gaia - complete with its stylish al fresco dining in an environment uncannily reminiscent of Rome - immediately became one of Hong Kong’s top Italian restaurants.
Buoyed by the success of Gaia, the Group next turned its attention to mainland China where in October 2001 it opened Va Bene Shanghai in the city’s fashionable Xintiandi entertainment district, a themed cultural and historical locale.
In May 2004, the Group embarked on its greatest-ever challenge – opening ISOLA bar + grill at a spectacular 7,000 sq ft venue over two floors of ifc mall on Hong Kong’s Central harbourfront. With floor-to-ceiling windows giving panoramic views across the Victoria Harbour and the restaurant’s spacious outdoor terrace, ISOLA’s fabulous location is one of very few venues in Hong Kong to offer waterfront al fresco dining. The opening of ISOLA was accompanied by the smaller, chic Mediterranean restaurant Cafe Costa that was opened by the Group as part of the ifc mall’s Lane Crawford flagship store.
Coming full circle in 2005, Gaia Group absorbed Lan Kwai Fong’s iconic Italian neighbourhood trattoria Va Bene; the restaurant that brought Pino Piano to Hong Kong as manager in the 90’s and to which Gaia Group owes its roots.
In 2007, with the opening of the luxury shopping and entertainment development Elements across Hong Kong’s harbour, came the opportunity to create Joia. The upscale al fresco business-casual ristorante epitomises the Group’s trademark accent on high style and great authentic Italian cuisine allowing it to sit eclectically well alongside the Group’s expanding restaurant portfolio.
With its success in mall-based restaurant operations proven, the Group was approached in 2009 by one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious property management companies, keen to offer visitors to its flagship Pacific Place mall a new dining experience. And in December 2009, the Group’s 4,000sq ft modern Mediterranean restaurant and bar, Zelo celebrated its launch.
Showing no signs of slowing down the pace of expansion, the Group continued the expansions in China through the second restaurant set up in Shanghai – ISOLA bar+grill. in September 2010 at the Shanghai ifc mall, the new restaurant and bar, at over 7,000 sq ft, although posing no less of a challenge than its Hong Kong namesake is certainly anticipated to be every inch as spectacular.
The Group further leverage their experiences in fine dining restaurant operations and had set yet another benchmark for restaurateurs. In 2011, Bene Italian, the group’s first casual dining concept restaurant is opened at New Town Plaza in Shatin, captures the essence of Italy in an area of 2,734 sq ft.
