The Japanese Restaurant Opening on Warren Street

The liquor-license application for the restaurant opening at 20 Warren went before the Community Board 1 Licensing Committee this week, and as indicated from the drawings posted on the door, it’ll have just 25 seats—”fifteen at a bar and ten at a sushi counter,” with no tables, said the rep from the restaurant’s law firm. She also specifically referred to it as a “high-end omakase sushi bar.” And yet the sample menus (below) tell a different story: They’re kaiseki, with relatively little seafood. The two principals listed on the application are chef Hisanori Yamamoto (currently at Ristorante Pegaso in Tokyo, and who appears not to be the pizza chef by the same name) and Yuiciro Enyo, president and CEO of a Japanese company called Nobels (which was mentioned in the Department of Buildings filings). Enyo’s involvement explains the “Herb Beef” on the menu, including in nigiri, and makes me wonder whether the restaurant is meant to serve as a showcase for the product. A description of Herb Beef from the Nobels website:

Noted for its prime balance between marbling of Wagyu (Japanese cows) and good texture of red meat, Nobels Food Co., Ltd proudly presents its new, “third category” Nobels Herb Beef. […] In Japan, several Michelin-starred restaurants specially designate our product as their preferred ingredient, and its quality keeps impressing the first-class chefs. Therefore, we are confident that our Herb Beef will live up to the expectation of food connoisseurs of New York. […] Nobels Herb Beef will find its way into the US market very soon. Even before the launch, we have been asking the top chefs of NY to actually cook and taste our product for the past 2 to 3 years. Our pre-marketing survey already earned us extremely favorable reputations among star chefs.

We’ll learn more at some point, although possibly not till it opens, which the rep said could be four months from now. I asked if the establishment has a name, but she said she didn’t think so. The corporate name is ICCA.

 

 

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