Hiro-o The Restaurant: Eat, Play, Works
(Photos coming soon)
The other day an editor I have worked with sent me an invitation to a pre-opening party at a new space in Hiro-o called The Restaurant: Eat Play Works. Never one to pass up a fun evening of eating, I immediately replied to her that I would be there.
The evening of the event I checked the location, put on a mask, and caught a Hibiya line train across town to Hiro-o. Although I have not been too worried or apprehensive about catching the corona virus, I have mostly tried to avoid taking trains the past few months. Just in case.
Because I rarely go to Hiro-o I wasn’t exactly sure of where needed to go. But as soon as I exited the station I looked across the street and there it was, the name painted in giant lettering on the side of the building. I crossed the street and tried calling my editor friend as she had instructed me to do. When she didn’t answer I started walking around and immediately saw her by event’s entrance. She handed me a piece of paper with my “team” name (Team C) and the restaurants I would be eating at and, being one of the organizers and very busy, told me to have a look around while waiting for the event to begin.
THE SPACE
The concept of The Restaurant is like a high-end food court, at least on the first two floors. The anchor tenant, Blue Bottle Coffee, has a large shop on the first floor opening to the sidewalk in front. Knowing how popular the Blue Bottle shop close to me is, in the somewhat isolated Kiyosumi neighborhood on the east side of the Sumida River, I am sure this location, in an area with much more foot traffic, will prove even more popular and will be a good draw for the other restaurants.
There are fifteen more restaurants in back of Blue Bottle and upstairs serving a microcosm of world cuisines. The list includes European cuisines (Italy, Spain and French), American (Mexico and a gourmet burger shop), non-Japanese Asia (Vietnam and a tea shop), and of course Japan (sushi, soba, yakitori, Okinawa, Gyoza and ramen). There is also a vegetarian restaurant. Me and my fellow Team C members got to eat soba, then sushi, and finally yakitori, some of my favorite Japanese foods. Thankfully my editor friend remembered what I like to eat, as well as that I don’t eat beef or pork.
THE FOOD
A few minutes before six, the starting time for the evening, my team started gathering around the soba restaurant and meeting each other. The restaurant, Mutsuboshi (むつ星) like all the others, had counter seating only (a couple places did have tables, as I recall). Our group was very international, about half the dozen or so people being Japanese, the rest a mix of European, one from Hong Kong, and me. Most were women.
The women seated near me as well as myself started off by ordering a beer before the food started coming. The first dish was edamame that had been slightly pickled in vinegar (I think), followed by tenpura (a skewer of red, yellow and green mini-tomatoes followed by shiitake and kuruma ebi, then the main dish, te-uchi jūwari soba (handmade noodles made from 100% soba) with a nice tsuyu dipping sauce made using shinshū shoyu from Matsumoto, Nagano prefecture.
After thirty minutes it was time to move towards the back of the room for some sushi at Sushi Dan (鮨団), a cheaper and more casual spin off of Ginza Hakkoku Sushi. It was a quick set of eight pieces of nigiri, including uni and ōtoro hon-maguro. The master said the price is ¥3,000 for lunch and ¥5,000 for dinner, prices that are very reasonable these days for sushi in Tokyo. Our eight-piece meal was just right for the evening, as we still had more to eat. Somewhat ironically, one member of our team does not really enjoy eating fish. She does like maguro, though, and ate her piece, and also the tamago that was served.
Sushi being a traditional Japanese fast food, we had plenty of time to eat and sip some sake and beer before heading upstairs to Yakitori Sadajūrō kakomu (焼き鳥佐田十郎囲む). Again, it was counter seating, and again we tried sit next to someone new. After a beer and a couple small cups of nihonshu I decided it was time to switch to mugi shōchū for my yakitori quaff, so that’s what I ordered. The first dish served was a piece of tebamoto (what we call a drumstick in America) simmered in a rich shōyu based sauce, the meat cooked so as to fall off the bone. By this point it was getting hard to eat as I was quite stuffed. But I got a second wind when the next piece was served, a skewer of mune (breast meat) followed by a skewer of tsukune (minced) with a cup of raw egg to pour over it, the tsukune meat formed onto the wide skewer. It was all very good, and probably a bit more than I should have eaten. Oh well.
Before finishing I ordered another glass of shōchū which for some reason I didn’t get until we were finished and on our way upstairs to see the office space portion of the project. When I asked they said it was okay to take the drink with me, so I did, finishing it as we waited for glasses of sparkling wine to be poured.
The upstairs floors are set up office spaces, both small, cubicle type as well as open rooms, kind of like in a large home. I didn’t hear all of the details, but you need to become a member to use the space, the monthly fee being something like ¥70,000 per month. The price includes free drinks from the third-floor bar. If it wasn’t such a long trip across the city from where I live, especially during the time of corona virus, I think I might sign up.
After chatting with some of the people I had met that evening over a few glasses of sparkling wine it was finally time to leave. I returned my empty shōchū glass to Yakitori Sadajūrō (I didn’t forget!) and continued down the stairs to the exit. As we passed Blue Bottle we were each handed a bag with a bottle of Blue Bottle craft beer and a can of their coffee, a nice little parting gift.
A few days later my wife was in the neighborhood for tea ceremony practice and had to walk past The Restaurant. She said it was packed, especially Blue Bottle Coffee. Looks like there is a new hot place in Tokyo, even with the corona virus still going around.