“You are my first customer at Kaneyoshi!” Yoshi-san exclaims gleefully as he hands me my Nama Chirashi and bottle of Saika Yamahai Junmai.
At first, I thought he meant that I was simply the first customer of the day to pick up my order, but then he corrects me and says I just received the first completed order ever at the newly-renamed Kaneyoshi! What an honor!
Taking me on an impromptu (and distanced) walk-around of the former Izakaya Fu-Ga space which will eventually house Kaneyoshi (the site is still finishing up with build-out, so I couldn’t take any photos), Yoshi-san explains that the restaurant’s name change was due to some investor “turbulence” last month. And despite this change of signage and ownership, the restaurant is still on track to open. At this point in the tour though, the only two things I am thinking about are: (1) How this sushi bar will be so drop dead gorgeous once completed, and (2) How I so wish the pandemic was over so that I could enjoy omakase here in person one day…
Unsurprisingly, the Kaneyoshi Nama Chirashi was thoughfully packaged. The sake (from the same Saika brewery which makes the rice vinegar seasoning the shari) was full-bodied and had an almost mystical sansho pepper quality about it, which provided a beautiful pairing with this box of premuim chirashi today.
This Kaneyoshi x Fu-Ga Nama Chirashi was slightly different than the one I enjoyed from Yoshi-san’s collaboration with I-naba. My chirashi today was just a tad more complex in both its rice and neta. The iron-rich akami (lean bluefin tuna) zuke was fantastic. Likewise, the kinmedai and bafun uni were spectacular. The gentle and skillfully prepared tamagoyaki was a wonderful coda as my last bite before I emptied out the entire box. My order today was an auspicious start to hopefully a long friendship with Kaneyoshi.