Washington, DC & beyondBy commission
A restaurantwithout walls.
Atelier Limardo is summoned, not visited. Chef Enrique Limardo and his team cook in your home for a single evening. They then leave, but the memories stay.
Enter the experience01 / The experience
Summoned, not visited.Some evenings
deserve their
own universe.
There is no address. No standing menu. Just your idea of an extraordinary evening, and a chef who knows how to bring it to life.
Enrique Limardo and his team cook in your home. The menu, the wine, the smallest detail: considered together, around you.
See what comes to lifeA few ingredients of an unforgettable evening
Nothing ordinary.
Nothing left to chance.
Enrique Limardo cooks, and his team works the evening with him. They arrive with the kitchen, the tools and the service.
Photographed at Imperfecto and Seven Reasons — Chef Limardo's restaurants in Washington, DC.
“You're not buying a dinner. You're witnessing the creation of something new.”
Enrique Limardo, Michelin-starred chef
02 / The mind behind the evening
Caracas → Washington → your table
Chef. Creator. Instigator.
Enrique
Limardo.
A Michelin-starred chef from Caracas who changed how America cooks Venezuelan food — and who now, privately, will cook you a menu that exists for one night only.
He began studying cooking in Venezuela in 1997 and finished in Spain, in the kitchens of Joan Roca, Ramon Freixa, Xavier Pellicer, Joan Pique and Carles Gaig. He came back with classical European technique and no interest in using it to cook European food.
In Washington he built Seven Reasons, then Imperfecto, Saga, Quadrant and Surreal — five restaurants in six years, a Michelin star, a James Beard nomination, and a national argument that modern Venezuelan cooking belongs in the same room as anything else. Critics have called him the person who brought it to the United States.
03 / From an idea to an evening
The making matters.Before the first bite,
a world is made.
Eight steps. Only one of them is dinner. Here is how the story unfolds.
01—03It starts with you.
A note. A discovery call with Chef Limardo. A written concept with the menu direction, the drinks and the price, before you commit to anything.
- 01Inquiry and first questions
- 02Discovery call
- 03Curated proposal
04—06Then, the unexpected.
Dishes that do not exist yet are developed around your brief. You are welcome in the room while that happens — tasting versions, discarding them, keeping the ones you love. The team visits your kitchen beforehand and works out what the room needs.
- 04Creation and research
- 05Detailing
- 06The visit
07—08One night. And after.
The kitchen arrives in the afternoon and is ready by dark. Afterwards it is packed down, the glasses are washed, and your home is your home again by morning. What stays is the menu, as it was served.
- 07The evening
- 08Afterward
Everything disappears. Except the feeling.
You had to
be there.
It lasts a few hours. Then the kitchen is packed, the glasses are washed, and by morning your home is your home again.
Imagine your evening04 / Before you write
A little
clarity.
Extraordinary should still be easy to understand.
What does it cost?
Commissions begin at $15,000, and that is a floor rather than an average. Two things move the number. One is how many people sit down. The other is how far you want the evening to go — at one end Chef Limardo cooks the dishes he is known for in your kitchen; at the other a restaurant is built from nothing for a single night, with a menu invented for you and never served again. An evening can sit anywhere between the two, and privacy is not one of the dials: documented or not documented costs you the same. Your number arrives in the written proposal, before you commit to anything.
How far ahead do I need to ask?
Four weeks is the shortest an evening can honestly be built in — dishes have to be developed before they can be cooked, and that work is the point. Most commissions take longer, and the earlier you write, the more room the chef has. If your date is sooner than that, write anyway and say so. We would rather tell you honestly whether it can be done than have you decide for us.
How many guests can it be?
There is no fixed range. An evening can be built for two, and it can be built for two hundred. The number changes almost everything — the size of the team, the shape of the service, the cost — so tell us yours early and it shapes the proposal from the start.
Is the evening private?
That is your call, and both answers are normal here. Some guests want the night documented — photographed and filmed, so that something survives an evening designed to disappear. Others want the opposite: no cameras, nothing kept, and a signed agreement from everyone who works on the evening. Neither is the default and neither costs you the other. You say which at the start, and it is written into the proposal.
Who actually cooks?
Enrique Limardo, with his team. They arrive with the kitchen, the tools and the service.
What about the wine and the cocktails?
Taken as seriously as the food. Drinks are part of how an evening is built rather than something added to it — chosen alongside the menu as it develops, and served by the same team. If there is a bottle you have been keeping for something, say so early and the menu can be built toward it.
Your evening starts with a conversation.
What if
we imagined it?
This is the first step of the commission. A few questions so we know who you are and what you are hoping for — every inquiry is read and answered personally, usually within two business days.