In January 2019, Ryan Chetiyawardana — universally known as Mr Lyan — closed Dandelyan at its peak. It had just been crowned World's Best Bar by the World's 50 Best organisation. The decision shocked the industry. Why close the best bar in the world?
The Philosophy Behind the Decision
The answer lies at the core of Lyan's approach to hospitality. Dandelyan was built around a specific concept — the botany and geology of the British Isles rendered through cocktails — and when that concept had been fully explored, the right artistic decision was to end it. This is not how the hospitality industry typically operates. Most bars run until they stop being profitable. Lyan treats bars as living creative projects with natural lifespans.
The Technical Innovation
Dandelyan popularised the use of low-waste, plant-based ingredients and house-made ferments at a scale never seen before in London cocktail bars. Cocktails were built around seasonal British ingredients — douglas fir, chalk stream water, fermented hay — at a time when most bars were still reaching for standard fruit syrups. This influenced a generation of London bartenders to think about provenance and seasonality in their own programmes.
What Remains
Super Lyan, Lyaness, and the wider Lyan company continue to evolve the philosophy. Each new bar is a genuinely new concept built from the same foundation: treat every drink as a considered expression of a bigger idea, waste nothing, and never mistake popularity for quality. For those of us in the bar industry, the Dandelyan legacy is a constant reminder that ambition and integrity are not in opposition.
