Ariel Arce — the owner of Manhattan’s Niche Niche, Air’s Champagne Parlor, and Tokyo Record Bar — has launched a caviar brand.
During the height of the pandemic, July 2020, she made the decision to launch CaviAIR with close friend Michelle Double. Her restaurants, Air’s Champagne Parlor in particular, were the catalyst for starting a caviar company. “Once I started going down the rabbit hole of the world of caviar, I started making some great relationships,” said Arce.
“When the pandemic hit, all the restaurants were just in such a difficult place. I felt like I was using so much of my creativity for survival purposes rather than thinking about all the fun, new things that we could bring to the world. So at a certain point my best friend and I were kind of just like, why the hell not just do something so left field?”
Arce and Double source caviar from the some of the same top-quality producers as many leading brands, but they charge less. They offer multiple grades from different sturgeons from around the world, at the most affordable price they can. Tins start at $50 for 28g of Kaluga Imperial.
“My main touch point for everything is making luxury affordable, approachable, and accessible,” said Arce. “The challenge is to take it out of its kind of fancy, pretentious background and really associate it with everyday things.”
The duo aims to position CaviAIR as a highbrow/lowbrow item. Arce acknowledges that caviar is not cheap, “but the comps for what you would be paying for the same product that we offer is exorbitant.”
“Keeping a caviar tin in your fridge is something that you can do,” said Arce. “You don’t have to be a fancy person just to do that. If you have leftover pizza, throw it on there or make yourself a nice breakfast and add a little caviar — it’ll last for weeks and you can do that every single morning. And that’s just like a nice thing you do for yourself. Think of it as a luxury, but a luxury that you deserve.”
You can find CaviAIR out in the Hamptons this summer in a sky blue vintage Land Rover Defender from 1964, available for hire for parties. CaviAIR is offering Apero Hour Parties, where the Defender will pull up to your lawn for an “Extra Fancy Tailgate.”
“We have decided to kind of throw caution to the wind and come out to the Hamptons,” said Arce. The car will be parked throughout the Hamptons on weekends this summer and will serve as a pickup location for pre-ordered CaviAIR packs and kits. You can find them at Il Buco al Mare in Amagansett every Friday, from 12:30 to 3 PM, and The Maidstone in East Hampton every Friday night.
The kits are great for “rethinking the traditional presentation of caviar,” said Arce. “We do crème fraîche, a brown butter egg whip, fresh pickles, and dill. We like to champion potato chips with caviar versus doing a blini or brioche. We’re doing North Fork Potato Chips and you get a mother of pearl spoon with the kits as well.”
The CaviAIR Car info will be on www.cavi-air.com, where guests can pre-order through the site or contact to book an event. On the @caviair Instagram, you can shop the options, check out where the car will be parked on what days and times, and select a pickup place and time.
