From ‘demonised’ White Lyan to international entrepreneur – how Ryan Chet grew an empire

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 28 February, 2022

Ryan Chetiyawardana, better known by alias Mr Lyan, says his first launch, White Lyan, was branded as a heretical concept by his peers and ‘demonised’ when it launched back in 2013 for its left-field approach to cocktails. Fast forward nine years, and the British entrepreneur is on the cusp of launching Seed Library, which sees him come full circle to where it all began in East London.

Things can change a lot in nine years. For Ryan Chetiyawardana, it is the difference between the outcry which accompanied the launch of White Lyan – the Hoxton bar that ruffled feathers with its ‘no perishables, no ice, no branded spirits’ approach – and a multi-award winning bar empire spanning two continents.

“White Lyan was a such a demonised bar to begin with,” the British entrepreneur told Harpers. “People said it was ruining the theatre of cocktails or the drinks weren’t ‘real’ because they had been made in advance. We were also playing with alternative acids and using different ways of making or controlling ingredients. By year two, I’d judged 50 bottled cocktail competitions around the world. It became the norm.”

Since those days, Chetiyawardana – and the industry – has moved on. In 2022, Chetiyawardana has proven himself to be an international entrepreneur of exceptional pedigree; a scientist-turned-empire-builder who wasn’t afraid to challenge established notions of cocktail-making and waste at a time when the wider public was only just beginning to grapple with ideas of sustainability.

It is on this foundation on which the new Seed Library, on the cusp of opening at 100 Shoreditch Hotel, is now being launched.

Focused on alternative flavour sources for classic cocktails, Seed Library continues to evolve Chetiyawardana’s USP of bringing landmark concepts that aim to “change the conversation”, around mixology. In this instance, the bar will focus on a ‘low-fi, analogue’ approach, which Chetiyawardana defines as letting the true flavour profiles of ingredients shine through, rather than “over-pruning or polishing” to fit existing templates.

“Seed Library is an exercise in letting go in terms of being professional and embracing what we don’t know – for example, low intervention wines. These are often characterised being quite modernist, though actually it’s the original way of making wine. The idea is ‘let’s not hone in’. Let’s embrace the fact that nature varies. It’s a bit fuzzy around the edges,” Chetiyawardana said.

This un-edited, ‘unpolished’ approach of letting the true flavour profiles shine through, rather than retro-fitting into established ideas, fits into the bar’s focus on low intervention wine.

With help from the wine bar upstairs at 100 Shoreditch, a number of natural wines will sit alongside a diverse range of craft beers and cider on the list. It’s a major theme for the bar’s mixology, too.

Seed Library’s Gimlet for example, eschews the expected citrus and almost sherbet-y use of coriander seeds, and instead embraces their natural vegetal notes for a more elegant finish.

Meanwhile, the Sancho Leaf Martini, uses a szechuan leaf in place of a lemon twist or an olive, while a G&T is garnished with perilla seed in lieu of a citrus wedge.

Seed Library also marks an evolution of Chetiyawardana’s business modelling. With his challenging concepts, Chetiyawardana has undoubtedly established himself as one of the leading faces of British hospitality. He says he is pleased and surprised to have been able to change the conversation as much as he has, and wants to continue to do so. In some ways, Chetiyawardana has been of a victim of his own success. He has changed the conversation in such a way as to make his ideas and bars obsolete. Now, he is focusing on concepts that are broader in scope and possess a greater time-limit.

“Lyaness was an evolution of Dandelyan and Cub was an evolution of White Lyan. In some ways, Seed Library is an evolution of Cub, [run in partnership with Douglas McCaster, head of nose-to-tail eating concept, Silo] which we had to close because of the pandemic. With all the others, we decided to retire them ourselves. But with Cub, it was just so tight and intimate – the bar and kitchen was right in front of you. Everyone was 50cm away from each other, not 2m.

“It was heart-breaking to have to close, but lot of its legacy lives on in Seed Library. We want to look at the chain of sustainability and see what can we challenge,” he said.

Silver Lyan in Washington D.C. and Super Lyan in Amsterdam also form part of Chetiyawardana’s desire to focus on longer term initiatives.

Silver Lyan is focused on ideas of cultural exchange – and this “wider ethos” continues to Seed Library.

“Dandelyan and White Lyan was all about challenging the use of ingredients and the structure of drinks. The philosophy doesn’t just apply to the cocktails, but across the spectrum to the music and lighting,” said Chetiyawardana.

“The whole point of the company is supposed to be about innovation and evolving with what’s happening around us. For Seed Library, it was really a case of us asking, ‘what would a cocktail look like if you built it from scratch? Does this classic cocktail actually suit the glassware and do the ingredients reflect the profile of drink? I love all the classics, but they are also very skewed to a western bias.”

Hopefully, Seed Library will be a Shoreditch fixture for a long time to come.

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