Kyoto A Capella
Capella Kyoto, top London roof terraces, Balera, Updown Farmhouse, Amsterdam properties, Shipwreck Bar, MORE
GETAWAYS • Japan
On the threshold
The new Capella in Kyoto wasn’t part of the plan. I was passing through, planned a quick fly-by, but ended up staying longer than I meant to. And of course: it was my best hotel stay in at least five years.
Opened in March as the brand’s first property in Japan, it’s set on the former site of the Shinmichi Elementary School in Miyagawa-cho, with architecture by Kengo Kuma and interiors by Brewin Design Office. The concept is the modern machiya, and Kuma holds the line on it: The street façade is discreet; you slip through a shoji-lit passage inspired by Gion’s laneways, with ambient water sounds and subtle pauses that compress before they release into a tsuboniwa courtyard crowned by a karahafu roof.
The whole property reads as a sequence of thresholds rather than a destination, which is what Kyoto actually feels like when you get it right, and almost no hotel does.
The rooms match the architecture. I was in a Premier Temple king looking over Kenninji temple with the rooftops of Gion in the distance. The living space managed to be visually disciplined while staying plush where it counts, the standout detail being a small console of analog switches that control everything in the room. This sounds like a low bar, until you consider the late-night, iPad-menu scavenger hunt that defines most luxury hotels since 2015.
The service playbook is the other reason this property holds. I stay with Capella often enough now (Bangkok, Sydney, Taipei) that they understood the file when I arrived, and the choreography reflected it: fresh fruit instead of the obligatory boozy welcome amenity, yoga mat already in the room, dietaries checked once and then handled, recognition by name without unnecessary overlay. Compared to the current Four Seasons brand at scale, it feels more personal, and compared to an Aman, it feels warmer with more of a culture pulse.
The signature dining is SoNoMa by SingleThread, a partnership with Kyle and Katina Connaughton’s three-Michelin-starred Sonoma restaurant, with chef Keita Tominaga running a 12-seat counter and a 20-seat ochaya-style lounge bar. Smartly, they didn’t try to enter the kaiseki arms race in one of the most competitive kaiseki cities on earth. Instead, SoNoMa runs a California-Japan synthesis built around the produce of both the Kansai region and Dry Creek Valley, including a mango dessert I’m still thinking about three weeks later. (And I’m not a dessert-person.)
Yoi, the late-night kappo room, is the one that stayed with me for non-culinary reasons. The space is fitted with reclaimed timber and lighting from the original elementary school, so you eat dinner or have a drink under lamps a generation of Kyoto kids did their homework beneath.
The site itself is in a three-part development along Shinmichi Street, together with the restored Kaburenjo theatre and a new community center. In a city ground down by overtourism, a property with genuine local goodwill earns access in Kyoto money can’t otherwise buy. The crowd at Capella was cool, culturally fluent, and nobody was filming their breakfast (at least that I saw). It’s an important distinction in a city flooded with tourists.
For now, Capella still feels like an insider proposition, and John Blanco, the cluster GM, has the property running like a Spring Drive Grand Seiko a month in: no friction, and no openings-stiffness.
FOUND Pro: Ask for a Premier Temple room with the Kenninji view, book SoNoMa for the first night, and book a private onsen room (living room, shower, and hot spring bath) by the hour for the morning you leave. –Colin Nagy
→ Capella Kyoto (Kyoto, Japan) • 130 Komatsucho, Higashiyama Ward • Rooms from JPY 394,200 ($2475) • Book.
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GOODS & SERVICES • Big Ticket
Select answers to the FOUND Routine query, What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
→ JENNIFER HOREV, chief brand officer & co-founder, Pura Vida (Miami): I bought the Bottega Veneta Andiamo Large Suede bag a few seasons ago, but with how much I’ve been traveling lately, I find myself reaching for it constantly. It’s one of those rare bags that’s both beautiful and incredibly functional. It’s spacious enough to hold everything: laptop, extra pair of shoes, even another handbag, but still feels elevated and polished. The shoulder strap makes it easy for travel, too. Highly recommend, if you want something that can truly do it all, without compromising on style.
→ TELLY JUSTICE, executive chef & co-owner, HAGS (NY): I just got a Mill home composting receptacle. It’s not cheap, but this thing is magical. You can throw almost any food scrap in there and within hours it’s transformed into healthy, gorgeous, aromatic dirt. We use it at the restaurant and it’s totally changed my relationship to composting. Whenever I bring it up to people in conversation, inevitably they’ll ask me if it’s truly worth the price. The answer is yes. Hard yes.
→ SARIT PACKER & ITAMAR SRULOVICH, co-founders, Honey & Co (LDN): Our biggest indulgence is art – we love the work of Kate Boxer. We have our eye on one of her prints so we’re waiting for a big birthday to splurge. If someone is looking for a gift idea for us, we wouldn’t mind one of Simon Gaiger’s works in our living room.
RESTAURANTS • New York
Pizza, party
Summer’s finally here, and Balera is ready. Opened in March in East Williamsburg, it’s one of the city’s most fun restaurants, new or otherwise, with a kitchen cranking until 1a on weekends serving some of its best new pizza, too.
Behind it, the culinary director/co-owner of La Rina and Brescola, and wine distributor Lorenzo Rubini (among others) and a pitch-perfect origin story: Italian expats meet in New York, become friends, come back from day of surfing, decide to open their own spot. Which is exactly what it feels like, a sun-kissed pizza party replanted onto Graham Avenue after being ripped straight outta Rimini (the Romagna coast beach destination Rubini hails from, and where the first balera — a kind of traditional Italian dance hall — opened in 1910).
Call it “coastal Italian” if you’ve gotta; for my money, it’s more “cosmo Italian” or just “Italo disco.” The tired Italian seafood menus slapped with the former label around the city, this ain’t. This is unfinicky Italian party food, done masterfully, framed by an extremely reasonable, mostly Italian wine list of natural and traditional, plus (befitting a party spot) a punchy grower-only biodynamic champagne section and novel cocktails (including a “DOCG” Martini, gin and vermouth mixed with a three-day-aged Parmigiana Reggiano infused reduction). As for the plates, they read like a rundown of dishes perfect for post-gaming a long day at the beach or pre-gaming a big night out. –Foster Kamer
GETAWAYS • Kent, England
Sweet deal
A few miles inland from Deal on the Kent coast, restaurant-with-rooms Updown Farmhouse has been serving Italian-influenced feasts from its wood-fired grill since 2022. Now, guests can sip fig leaf Negronis and aperitivi from its sassy cocktail spot, Bar Vita, which opened earlier this year.
Hospitality is an art and a craft, and owners Ruth Leigh and Oli Brown have serious game in both: front-of-house Leigh grew up in the business, while chef Brown is a veteran of Le Café Anglais. They’ve confidently built a dedicated following at Updown with their casual, family-friendly approach, great value weeknight set menus, and regular visiting chefs, from Adejoké Bakare (Chishuru) to Max Rocha (Café Cecilia), along with Jeremy Lee (Quo Vadis) and Henry Harris (Bouchon Racine).
The house itself is a renovated 17th-century farmstead that’s welcoming and generous in every sense, from deep beds and huge baths to an honesty bar. A pool opened last year. My favourite of the 10 rooms is bedroom three, which enjoys a corner spot in the main house with views across the treetops. Groups and families can take Fig Tree cottage, a two-bed suite, the brand new Beech Cottage, which sleeps six, or interconnecting rooms in The Stables. –Sophie Morris
REAL ESTATE • Netherlands
Three for-sale waterfront properties in Amsterdam that came to market in the last 14 days asking 2-3M €.
→ Hilverbeekstraat 32 (Markengouw-Zuid) • 5BR/3BA, 272 M2 detached villa • Ask: 2.15M € • on green lot in quiet residential setting w/ folding glass façade overlooking water • Days on market: 11 • Agent: Peter van den Berg, DSTRCT | Forbes Global Properties.
→ Herengracht 263 (Felix Meritisbuurt, above) • 3BR/2BA, 193 M2 canal house • Ask: 2.465M € • 1620 house on prestigious stretch of canal, renovated in 2000 • Days on market: 10 • Agent: Joshua Somogyi, Amster Vastgoed.
→ Prinsengracht 989 (Vijzelstraatbuurt) • 5BR/2BA, 288 M2 canal house • Ask: 2.95M € • 5 floors w/ 120 M2 garden on canal in city center • Days on market: 3 • Agent: Babs Persoons.
AROUND FOUND • Other Notable Intel & Recs
→ HAWAII: Spanning 81 acres on the Kona Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, Kona Village (a Rosewood Resort) has reimagined the former Kona Village Resort that was mostly destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. A relic of this pre-tsunami era is Shipwreck Bar, housed in the former schooner of the resort’s original owner. The bar mixes nostalgic yet reimagined tropical cocktails inspired by characters of local lore like “Mick, The Jungle Bird,” alongside a selection of tiki drinks. For the rest of 2026, Kona Village is hosting cocktail pop-ups centered around Shipwreck Bar, bringing in mixology stars from all over to sling drinks this summer and fall.
→ SF: Giulio De Monte Gaspardo, a former sommelier at Bottega in Yountville, has just opened Polenta, a cozy new restaurant in Alamo Square dedicated to his native Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy. With the flavors and wine as dialed in as they are, this place is all but certain to be a sleeper hit in the coming months.
→ LDN: Despite the French-sounding moniker, Auguste is actually Italian (it’s named after a clown in a painting that features in its colourful dining room). It opened in April just off London Fields, and retains the structure of the site’s previous resident, beloved seafood restaurant Papi. It’s offering great value for unusual fare in a lively spot that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Aman opens bookings for new Mexican resort Amanvari, debuting 08/01 • My unfiltered thoughts on new Six Senses London • Galicia becoming second-home bolt-hole for the climate conscious • Six new waterside getaways for the summer • A few roadtrip crib notes.
ASK FOUND
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What’s your favorite restaurant that you’ve visited on your travels?
More answers or questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfound.com.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Roof terraces, London
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best.
Forza Wine (Peckham), impeccable views, flatbreads and snacks in former car park