Mei × Yugen: A Fall Kaiseki Collaboration in St. Petersburg

Two kitchens, one counter, eight guests. This fall, Mei in downtown St. Petersburg handed its chef's table to a collaboration: a kaiseki dinner cooked by Chef Alex Chamberlain of Mei and Chef Lwin Siss of Yugen in Sarasota. We were behind the camera all night. Here's what the evening looked like, and why a dinner like this is some of the best marketing a restaurant can do.

What is Mei?

Mei is a tasting-menu restaurant at 320 3rd Street South in downtown St. Pete, on the ground floor of the Camden Pier District apartments. It opened in June 2026. St Pete Rising describes the cooking as French technique, Nordic influences and Japanese ingredients, served at an eight-seat chef's table.

The team behind it is a familiar one in Tampa Bay. Mei comes from owners Jimmy and Johnny Tung, who founded Bento, and Chef Alex Chamberlain was previously chef de cuisine at kōsen, the Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant in Tampa. The Tampa Bay Times covered its opening this summer.

What is Yugen?

Yugen is a ten-seat Japanese kaiseki chef's counter at University Town Center in Sarasota, which Sarasota Magazine covered when it opened in early 2026. Its executive chef is Lwin Siss.

That makes this collaboration a family affair on the Gulf Coast. Yugen comes from the same owners as Mei and kōsen, so the dinner brought together two counters from one restaurant group: one in St. Pete, one in Sarasota, about an hour apart.

What is a kaiseki dinner?

Kaiseki is the Japanese multi-course meal built around the season. Each course is small and deliberate, and the menu moves through raw, grilled, simmered and sweet in an order meant to show what is best right now. That made it a natural fit for Mei's counter, and for a collaboration: two chefs, each bringing their own style, working to the same season.

What happened at the Mei × Yugen collaboration?

For one night, Chef Alex and Chef Lwin cooked a fall kaiseki menu side by side for eight guests. The menu brought French and Japanese influences together around seasonal ingredients, and every course was finished and served across the counter, so guests watched each plate being built.

The menu took in raw fish, seared meats and dessert. Some of the plates we shot that night:

Why do chef collaborations work as restaurant marketing?

A collaboration dinner gives people a reason to talk about a restaurant that isn't a discount. It works on several fronts at once:

• It's news. "Two chefs, one night, eight seats" is a story local food writers, creators and regulars want to share. A normal Tuesday service isn't.
• Each restaurant meets the other's audience. Both kitchens post, both kitchens' followers see it, and each restaurant reaches people who already like the other.
• Scarcity does the selling. Eight seats are scarce by design. The rest of the audience follows along online and books a regular night instead.
• It produces months of content. One evening of courses, chefs and a full room is enough material to feed both restaurants' social media long after the dinner is over.

That last point only holds if someone is there to capture it properly. A collab dinner happens once; if the photos are dark phone shots, the story is gone.

What should a restaurant capture at a collaboration dinner?

From shooting this one, the shot list that carried the story:

• The arrival. The sign at night and the room before guests sit down set the scene for everything after.
• Both chefs, working together. Hands at the pass, plating side by side, the moment a dish crosses the counter. This is the image that says "collaboration" without a caption.
• Every course, two ways. One overhead or close-up for the dish itself, one at eye level with a guest or a chef in the frame for the experience.
• The room. Guests at the counter, glasses, the kitchen behind them. It shows the scale of the night, which is part of the appeal.
• Small details. Knife work, garnishes, the shelves and plants that make the space recognisable.

The best frames from the night became a designed carousel on our Instagram.

Planning a collaboration dinner in Tampa Bay?

If you're putting together a chef collab, a pop-up or a launch night, we can shoot it and turn it into content your restaurant can use for months: photos, short-form video and the posts to go with them. See our restaurant marketing work, how we approach content creation and social media marketing, or tell us about your event.