TRENDS By Michael Granberry
Izakaya Ten in New York is small, like most Izakaya restaurants are.
Izakaya Dining Rage Japanese pub culture takes off. B
eyond its red canopy and checkerboard-tile facade in San Francisco's funky Mission District, Nombe is what the locals call an Izakaya paradise. Izakaya means "place of sake" or, more loosely, "gathering place." It's a food and
drink trend that is catching on not only in the Mission but all over the country. Nombe's logo is a clue to what the Izakaya experience is all about. "Nombe"
is Japanese for "the person who loves to drink." Th is historical Japanese dining tradition is focused on multiple small plates and abundant libations. "Izakaya is a gastro pub where you drink and eat at the same time," explains Mari Takahashi, the executive chef at Nombe, "but, make no mistake, the focus is alcohol." As trends go, the Izakaya style of dining is more than two centuries old in
Japan. While in the U.S. it's a relatively new pop-culture, gastro-pub craze, which Takahashi calls a convenient trend arriving at an opportune time. It often mirrors the small-plates dining style of tapas, which can be light on the wallet and the stomach.
FOLLOWING, AND SETTING, TRENDS Izakaya dining took fi re in the U.S., she contends, partly because of the economic
downturn but also because the time was right for serving up a mixture of alcohol and small appetizers that mesh perfectly at the end of a long, enervating work day.
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"Th e Izakaya experience is convenient for people to share," says Takahashi, "because it's more communal." When it comes to alcohol, Nombe
serves up primarily the beverage bellwethers of Izakaya—sake and shochu, the latter being a clear spirit distilled from various ingredients that contain natural starches such as potato, rice, wheat and barley. Th ere are many diff erent types of shochu, but in terms of alcohol, shochu gets much of its punch from being clear and distilled, which puts it higher on the alcohol scale than the old standard of sake. Takahashi says Japanese beer is also popular with Izakaya, the favorites being Sapporo and Asahi, priced from $5 to $6 for glasses, $15 to $18 for pitchers. Bottles of beer range from $5 to $12.
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AMELIA BEAMISH
