A New York Knicks fan who wants to meet the team’s star guard Jalen Brunson and perhaps continue to discuss/mourn the team’s playoff loss can do that on July 23. It will take place during a dinner at the critically lauded West Village restaurant San Sabino, a tough reservation to get for its Italian accented seafood, in collaboration with Brooklyn’s revered pizza specialist Lucali. The requirement: a Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which will also get cardmembers access to other special experiences as part of the program Summer, Reserved.
The Premise of the Program Summer, Reserved
“Our cardmembers have made it clear: they’re looking for more than just reservations. They want access – access to the restaurants they love and the kind of one-of-a-kind moments you can’t otherwise create,” according to Sam Palmer, General Manager of Chase Sapphire. “Summer, Reserved is our way of delivering on that, with unforgettable experiences in incredible spaces—and there’s still so much more to come.”
Meeting Lin-Manuel Miranda and Dinner At the Public Theater
Another event, just over a week after the Brunson event on August 1 is geared more to theater fans. Anyone who watched this year’s Tony Awards and saw the mashup of Hamilton musical numbers featuring the show’s original cast is aware that the groundbreaking musical is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. So who better to meet than the show’s creator, original Alexander Hamilton and theater icon Lin-Manuel Miranda on the stage of New York’s Public Theater where the show launched before heading to Broadway. Dinner on the stage is also included, created by the restaurant Colonia Verde.
Out in the Hamptons
Since it’s summertime when the New York scene largely shifts east to the Hamptons, activities are also being assembled out there. Among them: a popup available to cardmembers from the Los Angeles/Las Vegas/Miami celebrity hotspot Delilah that will similarly be hard to get into but will be easily accessible for cardmembers.
The Program’s Restaurants for Special Events
Restaurant experiences are a mainstay of elite cardmember perks, an area to which Chase Sapphire Reserve executives devote special focus, particularly with the acquisition of The Infatuation, an opinionated, sometimes cheeky, always honest restaurant review site that started in New York and expanded nationally and internationally. “We always try to meet our cardmembers where they are – whether it’s the city they live in, a place they frequently travel to, or simply somewhere they want to be,” explains Chris Stang, co-founder of The Infatuation and head of lifestyle at Chase. “For Summer, Reserved, we chose locations where we could curate something they won’t find elsewhere that’s interesting, exciting and also feels relevant to the time of year. As we move forward, you can expect to see us announce more experiences throughout the year that take place in different cities across the country and beyond.”
This summer, the program includes restaurant takeovers between July 23 and 26, collaborations between two restaurants and special chef moments. In New York, the takeovers are the San Sabino and Lucali collaboration (on July 24-26 following the Jalen Brunson dinner); San Sabino’s sister restaurant, the inventive Italian Don Angie next door; Chez Fifi, the cozy French bistro on the Upper East Side that’s been described as the toughest table to get in town and Kabawa, the Lower East Side Caribbean restaurant that’s part of star chef David Chang’s Momofuku group.
In Los Angeles, the chosen restaurants include another Chang restaurant Majordomo in a collaboration with the Mexican seafood spot Loreto; the French-Japanese bistro Camélia and the Mexican-Italian restaurant Amiga Amore. The Chicago program spotlights four restaurants: the James Beard nominated Mexican Mariscos San Pedro in collaboration with the modern French Obelix; the Latin American Cariño; Italian Alla Vita and Basque Asador Bastian. Nashville has one event on July 26: Bad Idea, a wine bar with Laotian cuisine in collaboration with Miami’s hyper seasonal Krüs Kitchen.
Other Perks
Apart from the summer special events, Chase is also adding other perks to the card: a new annual $300 dining credit along with primetime reservations through Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables, a growing list of hundreds of restaurants curated by The Infatuation and OpenTable in collaboration with the Visa Dining Collection. And more special features are on the way.