Article
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-izakaya9nov09,0,6206524.story?coll=la-home-food
Japanese pop
Izakaya, those trendy late-night gastropubs, are bursting onto the
scene here.
By Linda Burum
Special to The Times
November 9, 2005
IT'S after midnight on a Saturday night at the izakaya Honda Ya, a
Japanese pub in Tustin. When the door swings open, a roar of laughter
and conversation blasts out to the waiting crowd. Inside, the room
pulses with electric energy.
Diners sit elbow to elbow at heavy wooden tables in front of the open
kitchen or the smoky yakitori bar in the back, drinking sake or draft
Kirin and sharing plate after plate of sakana, the Japanese tapas
always served with drinks. From Honda's nearly 100-item menu, diners
are ordering plump fried oysters, plates of grilled salmon collar,
spicy tuna rolls and garlic leaves stir-fried with bacon. The dishes
will often be shared throughout the evening along with a few rounds of
sake.
Izakaya (ee-zah-KAH-yah) in Japan have come a long way from their
origins as street-food stalls or carts, common through Japanese
history, where customers would stop to drink and snack. They're often
described as pubs or taverns � but those terms barely hint at the
amazing panoply of highly creative dishes most serve today.
Drinking and nibbling, often until very late at night, through a
wide-ranging menu � which may include innovative takes on sashimi,
smoky charcoal-grilled fish or Lilliputian servings of such Japanese
tapas as braised Berkshire pork with potatoes � is the essence of the
izakaya experience.
And these days the izakaya experience in and around Los Angeles is
growing more varied by the day.
In contrast with the rough-hewn wood and country-style feel of Honda
Ya, at ultra-trendy Beaux in Torrance, the set-designy room is done in
edgy chain-link fence d�cor with an Italianate bar. There always seems
to be a rush of customers around 10 p.m. ordering up
Japanese-influenced Mediterranean snacks such as beef carpaccio salad
or a steamy dish of Japanese-style spaghetti vongole spiked with
shiso, green onion and garlic.
At Ikko, an izakaya in Costa Mesa with a kitchen headed by chef Ikko
Kobayashi, the mood is more sedate and the cuisine, though still small
plates, is kappo ryori, called kappo in conversation, a more refined
and imaginative variation on the pub-food tradition. Each temptation
that comes to the table is a delicious step in another direction: In
quick succession you might try house-smoked giant clam with fresh
wasabi, organic three-radish salad and yellowtail carpaccio with
jalape�o ginger sauce.
*
Tapping into a trend
THIS is the sort of food that blew away David Myers, chef at the West
Hollywood restaurant Sona, when he visited Japan in July. So impressed
is Myers with kappo's creative potential, he's teaming with sushi chef
Kazunori Nozawa to open an izakaya called Sokyo in West Hollywood next
year.
Sokyo will be just the latest of more than a dozen new izakaya and
their fancier, chef-driven siblings, kappo restaurants, that have
opened in Southern California within the last year or so � and more
are on the way. An outpost of the six-branch Suttokodokkoi chain in
Japan is slated to open near West Hollywood in the spring, and an
opulent multilevel izakaya, Gonpachi, opens early next year in the
former Ed Debevic's space on La Cienega.
Izakaya aren't exactly new here � the first in L.A. opened in the
1970s. But since tapas and small plates have taken off so
dramatically, Angelenos of all backgrounds are suddenly hungry for
this Japanese version � in fact, the dishes are referred to as tapas
in some of the recently opened izakaya. It's beginning to feel like a
real phenomenon.
Because many of the owners and customers at the new spots are young
and recent immigrants, they're taking cues from the ever-changing pub
trends in Japan. That might mean fusion or Japanese-influenced
European cuisine or edgy d�cor.
Today in L.A. as in Japan, izakaya can be as edgy as Geisha House in
Hollywood, with its sexy, swanky lounge interior, or as homey as Azuma
Izakaya's Gardena dining room fitted out with Formica-type tables and
stacked sake drums. They can be chic bo�tes suited for intimate
conversation, like Izakaya Yuzu in West Hollywood; rooms with
fashion-statement d�cor that attract a scene, such as Geisha House; or
late-night yakitori and robata places offering ippinmono (little
dishes) and long lists of sake and shochu, like the charming Izakaya
Haru Ulala in Little Tokyo. Some sushi spots are also izakaya.
But whether it's a stylish high-end lounge or a place that replicates
the funky taverns of old, the hallmark of izakaya or kappo restaurants
is usually the communal table or a dining bar from which you can watch
the chef working in an open kitchen.
In the past, izakaya were strictly after-work watering holes
frequented primarily by salarymen who would loosen their ties, escape
the day's tensions with a couple of sakes and a few tidbits from the
charcoal grill, then pour out their sorrows to friends.
But here, and even in Japan now, izakaya are equal-opportunity
restaurants, catering to women, couples and in some instances even
families.
Sake may once have been the only drink in izakaya, but nowadays most
places also serve an assortment of beer and shochu (the Asian-style
vodka brewed from various grains or sweet potatoes), as well as shochu
cocktails. Some places have wine lists too.
Certain neighborhoods � the South Bay, parts of West Los Angeles,
Little Tokyo and areas of Orange County, near Japanese businesses and
multinational corporations � have always had the highest concentration
of izakaya.
Now, in addition to new izakaya in those neighborhoods, there are
examples in other neighborhoods: There's a branch of Musha in Santa
Monica, and in the Hollywood and West Hollywood area, long established
Ita-Cho has been joined by Sake House Miro, and more recently Izakaya
Yuzu and Geisha House.
In the Torrance-Gardena area, a bastion of Japanese corporations,
you'll find not only the stylish Beaux, but an array of izakaya, from
funky to fancy, some so intent on attracting diners new to the scene
that they write an explanation of izakaya-style dining on their menus:
"a good way to get acquainted with Japanese food," Teppan Kazamidori's
menu tells us.
One of the newest entries in Torrance, Yuzu, is always packed with
local Japanese businesspeople. The daily choice sashimi can be
brilliant; it's served with freshly grated wasabi. Specialist cooks,
each concentrating on a different technique, prepare an adventurous
list of washoku, which means "harmony of food," but today refers to a
revived appreciation for traditional Japanese flavors and seasonal
ingredients such as crossbred wild-domestic duck and lean lamb with
wasabi salt.
*
Distinctive choices
AT Musha in Torrance, the theme is a playful take on the raucous
debauchery of old-time taverns. Musha's "Tokyo Cuisine" blends izakaya
tradition with the global perspective of hip Japanese youth. Octopus
omelet with rice noodles comes cut into wedges like a Spanish
tortilla. Delicate Vietnamese spring rolls or duck breast cooked at
the table over a tiny brazier make perfect sake partners.
A few miles south at Kan Izakaya Yuzen, an airy open kitchen and sleek
lines give the modern dining room a quiet dignity. There's whimsy in
dishes such as ground chicken with a light miso glaze in lettuce
wraps. And Kan's flown-in-from-Japan sashimi, always exquisitely
fresh, is a perfect foil for any of its aromatic sake selections.
Orange County is home to a collection of fine traditional kappo
restaurants. Food is the star at an izakaya serving kappo cuisine;
ambience will usually be plain. Some kappo chefs produce highly
individualistic dishes, always offered, as at more casual izakaya,
with a long list of regionally produced sake, a variety of shochu,
beer and, nowadays, often many wine choices.
Gaijin, or non-Japanese people, may be offered a dinner menu that
lists teriyaki salmon and tempura � as I was at Osaka Kappo in Tustin.
Hold out for the kappo menu, watch what others are eating and ask for
suggestions. You'll be rewarded with such meticulously wrought
creations as chef Itsuki's tenkoro soba, an arrangement of light
green, al dente noodles topped with a cloud-like fluff of tempura shrimp.
Kappo Suzumaru in Tustin makes selecting much easier with colored
photographs illustrating its kappo. Here too it's best to ignore the
touristy dinners in favor of more adventurous kappo dishes. Steamed
seafood soup served in an iron teapot or the slightly chewy tofu
sheets, yuba, with shiitake mushroom sauce will conjure up a Japanese
garden teahouse.
Sitting at the communal table at Kappo Honda in Fountain Valley, you
can browse a lengthy list of premium sakes by the glass and try
octopus sashimi in sweet miso sauce or creamy-centered Japanese
pumpkin croquettes from the well-translated 100-plus items on the list.
At all these places, one of the younger bilingual servers can help
explain the specials on any of the ancillary lists written in Japanese.
Back in downtown L.A., a blossoming artist's district along with many
new condos and several recently opened or refurbished izakaya, are
infusing new life into Little Tokyo.
On 2nd Street, Izakaya Haru Ulala caters to a good-looking downtown
loft crowd. Neighborhood fashionistas lounge for hours (until 3 a.m.
on weekends) nibbling, schmoozing, browsing the many menus (a board
and at least two different written ones) and ordering up rounds of
grilled seafood, oysters, minced shrimp-stuffed shiitake mushrooms,
soba salad and drinks.
*
Tradition tweaked
THE latest retro pubs in West L.A. � SaSaYa, which opened in May, and
WakaSan, opened in January � mimic old-fashioned Japanese izakaya with
d�cor evoking rural sake breweries, birthplaces of izakaya.
At WakaSan, a $25 prix fixe, daily-changing 10-course omakase, or
tasting menu of home-style dishes, is the only offering. Diners
reserve a table and then spend most of the evening pouring one
another's drinks in the time-honored manner as they slowly work their
way through salads, grills, steamed and fried items.
SaSaYa has wonderful seasonal offerings such as, currently, a warming
yosanabe or Japanese-style bouillabaisse, as well as tapas like dried
stingray fin with seven-spiced-chile-pepper-spiked mayonnaise or
steamed green onions in sweet miso sauce. The welcoming staff loves to
advise on sake varieties and offer flights to the curious.
Zip Fusion, a chic new place on Olympic, is an izakaya with typically
innovative L.A. style. Owner Jason Ha says that watching the TV show
"Cheers" to learn English inspired him to create an ambience "where
everybody knows your name."
Zip's sakana, such as baked baby calamari stuffed with spicy tuna,
arrive in portions designed to encourage sharing. And the top-selling
"alba-cado," a gorgeous appetizer that layers seared tuna and avocado,
is constructed as a pull-apart sphere.
Zip fulfills the intent of any good izakaya: to cultivate a relaxing
setting that encourages warm communication.
"Izakaya food is conversation food," says one devotee. A note on the
menu at Costa Mesa's Oki Doki expresses the ethos this way: "We are
designed not merely for dining, but for enjoying the company of others."
It's an idea that's turning a once-hidden subculture into the dining
trend of the day.
Japanese pop
Izakaya, those trendy late-night gastropubs, are bursting onto the
scene here.
By Linda Burum
Special to The Times
November 9, 2005
IT'S after midnight on a Saturday night at the izakaya Honda Ya, a
Japanese pub in Tustin. When the door swings open, a roar of laughter
and conversation blasts out to the waiting crowd. Inside, the room
pulses with electric energy.
Diners sit elbow to elbow at heavy wooden tables in front of the open
kitchen or the smoky yakitori bar in the back, drinking sake or draft
Kirin and sharing plate after plate of sakana, the Japanese tapas
always served with drinks. From Honda's nearly 100-item menu, diners
are ordering plump fried oysters, plates of grilled salmon collar,
spicy tuna rolls and garlic leaves stir-fried with bacon. The dishes
will often be shared throughout the evening along with a few rounds of
sake.
Izakaya (ee-zah-KAH-yah) in Japan have come a long way from their
origins as street-food stalls or carts, common through Japanese
history, where customers would stop to drink and snack. They're often
described as pubs or taverns � but those terms barely hint at the
amazing panoply of highly creative dishes most serve today.
Drinking and nibbling, often until very late at night, through a
wide-ranging menu � which may include innovative takes on sashimi,
smoky charcoal-grilled fish or Lilliputian servings of such Japanese
tapas as braised Berkshire pork with potatoes � is the essence of the
izakaya experience.
And these days the izakaya experience in and around Los Angeles is
growing more varied by the day.
In contrast with the rough-hewn wood and country-style feel of Honda
Ya, at ultra-trendy Beaux in Torrance, the set-designy room is done in
edgy chain-link fence d�cor with an Italianate bar. There always seems
to be a rush of customers around 10 p.m. ordering up
Japanese-influenced Mediterranean snacks such as beef carpaccio salad
or a steamy dish of Japanese-style spaghetti vongole spiked with
shiso, green onion and garlic.
At Ikko, an izakaya in Costa Mesa with a kitchen headed by chef Ikko
Kobayashi, the mood is more sedate and the cuisine, though still small
plates, is kappo ryori, called kappo in conversation, a more refined
and imaginative variation on the pub-food tradition. Each temptation
that comes to the table is a delicious step in another direction: In
quick succession you might try house-smoked giant clam with fresh
wasabi, organic three-radish salad and yellowtail carpaccio with
jalape�o ginger sauce.
*
Tapping into a trend
THIS is the sort of food that blew away David Myers, chef at the West
Hollywood restaurant Sona, when he visited Japan in July. So impressed
is Myers with kappo's creative potential, he's teaming with sushi chef
Kazunori Nozawa to open an izakaya called Sokyo in West Hollywood next
year.
Sokyo will be just the latest of more than a dozen new izakaya and
their fancier, chef-driven siblings, kappo restaurants, that have
opened in Southern California within the last year or so � and more
are on the way. An outpost of the six-branch Suttokodokkoi chain in
Japan is slated to open near West Hollywood in the spring, and an
opulent multilevel izakaya, Gonpachi, opens early next year in the
former Ed Debevic's space on La Cienega.
Izakaya aren't exactly new here � the first in L.A. opened in the
1970s. But since tapas and small plates have taken off so
dramatically, Angelenos of all backgrounds are suddenly hungry for
this Japanese version � in fact, the dishes are referred to as tapas
in some of the recently opened izakaya. It's beginning to feel like a
real phenomenon.
Because many of the owners and customers at the new spots are young
and recent immigrants, they're taking cues from the ever-changing pub
trends in Japan. That might mean fusion or Japanese-influenced
European cuisine or edgy d�cor.
Today in L.A. as in Japan, izakaya can be as edgy as Geisha House in
Hollywood, with its sexy, swanky lounge interior, or as homey as Azuma
Izakaya's Gardena dining room fitted out with Formica-type tables and
stacked sake drums. They can be chic bo�tes suited for intimate
conversation, like Izakaya Yuzu in West Hollywood; rooms with
fashion-statement d�cor that attract a scene, such as Geisha House; or
late-night yakitori and robata places offering ippinmono (little
dishes) and long lists of sake and shochu, like the charming Izakaya
Haru Ulala in Little Tokyo. Some sushi spots are also izakaya.
But whether it's a stylish high-end lounge or a place that replicates
the funky taverns of old, the hallmark of izakaya or kappo restaurants
is usually the communal table or a dining bar from which you can watch
the chef working in an open kitchen.
In the past, izakaya were strictly after-work watering holes
frequented primarily by salarymen who would loosen their ties, escape
the day's tensions with a couple of sakes and a few tidbits from the
charcoal grill, then pour out their sorrows to friends.
But here, and even in Japan now, izakaya are equal-opportunity
restaurants, catering to women, couples and in some instances even
families.
Sake may once have been the only drink in izakaya, but nowadays most
places also serve an assortment of beer and shochu (the Asian-style
vodka brewed from various grains or sweet potatoes), as well as shochu
cocktails. Some places have wine lists too.
Certain neighborhoods � the South Bay, parts of West Los Angeles,
Little Tokyo and areas of Orange County, near Japanese businesses and
multinational corporations � have always had the highest concentration
of izakaya.
Now, in addition to new izakaya in those neighborhoods, there are
examples in other neighborhoods: There's a branch of Musha in Santa
Monica, and in the Hollywood and West Hollywood area, long established
Ita-Cho has been joined by Sake House Miro, and more recently Izakaya
Yuzu and Geisha House.
In the Torrance-Gardena area, a bastion of Japanese corporations,
you'll find not only the stylish Beaux, but an array of izakaya, from
funky to fancy, some so intent on attracting diners new to the scene
that they write an explanation of izakaya-style dining on their menus:
"a good way to get acquainted with Japanese food," Teppan Kazamidori's
menu tells us.
One of the newest entries in Torrance, Yuzu, is always packed with
local Japanese businesspeople. The daily choice sashimi can be
brilliant; it's served with freshly grated wasabi. Specialist cooks,
each concentrating on a different technique, prepare an adventurous
list of washoku, which means "harmony of food," but today refers to a
revived appreciation for traditional Japanese flavors and seasonal
ingredients such as crossbred wild-domestic duck and lean lamb with
wasabi salt.
*
Distinctive choices
AT Musha in Torrance, the theme is a playful take on the raucous
debauchery of old-time taverns. Musha's "Tokyo Cuisine" blends izakaya
tradition with the global perspective of hip Japanese youth. Octopus
omelet with rice noodles comes cut into wedges like a Spanish
tortilla. Delicate Vietnamese spring rolls or duck breast cooked at
the table over a tiny brazier make perfect sake partners.
A few miles south at Kan Izakaya Yuzen, an airy open kitchen and sleek
lines give the modern dining room a quiet dignity. There's whimsy in
dishes such as ground chicken with a light miso glaze in lettuce
wraps. And Kan's flown-in-from-Japan sashimi, always exquisitely
fresh, is a perfect foil for any of its aromatic sake selections.
Orange County is home to a collection of fine traditional kappo
restaurants. Food is the star at an izakaya serving kappo cuisine;
ambience will usually be plain. Some kappo chefs produce highly
individualistic dishes, always offered, as at more casual izakaya,
with a long list of regionally produced sake, a variety of shochu,
beer and, nowadays, often many wine choices.
Gaijin, or non-Japanese people, may be offered a dinner menu that
lists teriyaki salmon and tempura � as I was at Osaka Kappo in Tustin.
Hold out for the kappo menu, watch what others are eating and ask for
suggestions. You'll be rewarded with such meticulously wrought
creations as chef Itsuki's tenkoro soba, an arrangement of light
green, al dente noodles topped with a cloud-like fluff of tempura shrimp.
Kappo Suzumaru in Tustin makes selecting much easier with colored
photographs illustrating its kappo. Here too it's best to ignore the
touristy dinners in favor of more adventurous kappo dishes. Steamed
seafood soup served in an iron teapot or the slightly chewy tofu
sheets, yuba, with shiitake mushroom sauce will conjure up a Japanese
garden teahouse.
Sitting at the communal table at Kappo Honda in Fountain Valley, you
can browse a lengthy list of premium sakes by the glass and try
octopus sashimi in sweet miso sauce or creamy-centered Japanese
pumpkin croquettes from the well-translated 100-plus items on the list.
At all these places, one of the younger bilingual servers can help
explain the specials on any of the ancillary lists written in Japanese.
Back in downtown L.A., a blossoming artist's district along with many
new condos and several recently opened or refurbished izakaya, are
infusing new life into Little Tokyo.
On 2nd Street, Izakaya Haru Ulala caters to a good-looking downtown
loft crowd. Neighborhood fashionistas lounge for hours (until 3 a.m.
on weekends) nibbling, schmoozing, browsing the many menus (a board
and at least two different written ones) and ordering up rounds of
grilled seafood, oysters, minced shrimp-stuffed shiitake mushrooms,
soba salad and drinks.
*
Tradition tweaked
THE latest retro pubs in West L.A. � SaSaYa, which opened in May, and
WakaSan, opened in January � mimic old-fashioned Japanese izakaya with
d�cor evoking rural sake breweries, birthplaces of izakaya.
At WakaSan, a $25 prix fixe, daily-changing 10-course omakase, or
tasting menu of home-style dishes, is the only offering. Diners
reserve a table and then spend most of the evening pouring one
another's drinks in the time-honored manner as they slowly work their
way through salads, grills, steamed and fried items.
SaSaYa has wonderful seasonal offerings such as, currently, a warming
yosanabe or Japanese-style bouillabaisse, as well as tapas like dried
stingray fin with seven-spiced-chile-pepper-spiked mayonnaise or
steamed green onions in sweet miso sauce. The welcoming staff loves to
advise on sake varieties and offer flights to the curious.
Zip Fusion, a chic new place on Olympic, is an izakaya with typically
innovative L.A. style. Owner Jason Ha says that watching the TV show
"Cheers" to learn English inspired him to create an ambience "where
everybody knows your name."
Zip's sakana, such as baked baby calamari stuffed with spicy tuna,
arrive in portions designed to encourage sharing. And the top-selling
"alba-cado," a gorgeous appetizer that layers seared tuna and avocado,
is constructed as a pull-apart sphere.
Zip fulfills the intent of any good izakaya: to cultivate a relaxing
setting that encourages warm communication.
"Izakaya food is conversation food," says one devotee. A note on the
menu at Costa Mesa's Oki Doki expresses the ethos this way: "We are
designed not merely for dining, but for enjoying the company of others."
It's an idea that's turning a once-hidden subculture into the dining
trend of the day.