Esmé had a smaller restaurant and bar next to their Michelin dining room. They wanted to program it differently, around local community. Johnnie Walker wanted to try something new with the brand.

Coffee moves through more phases than most people realize before it reaches a cup. It's usually shown in fragments — the farm or the barista's hands. We wanted to walk guests through the whole process, seed to cup.

Esmé's bar was set up for a different kind of night. Johnnie Walker had been looking to work outside their usual lane. Bueno brought coffee expertise and cultural POV.

What all three of us shared was a love for unexpected hospitality, unfamiliar flavors, and experiences that sit beyond the usual. Más Allá — beyond — was the name we found works for what we wanted to share.

Three dinners, each shaped around one stage of the coffee process.

Each dinner ran four courses. Every course paired a coffee expression, a food moment, and a Johnnie Walker cocktail. We designed the full guest journey: arrival, welcome, four sequenced moments, takeaway and wrote the marketing plan for it.

The series ran three nights in Fall 2022 at Esmé. Two seatings per night, 14 guests each, all sold out.