With inspiration from world famous chef, downtown dining just got a little more cosmopolitan

Basho Japanese fusion restaurant and lounge is an example of how the restaurant scene in St. John’s is growing and diversifying.

With food inspired by world famous chef Nobu Matsuhisa (renowned for creating simple fusions of Japanese cuisine, inspired by ethnic influences), a modern, genuine Japanese décor and the option of experiencing fine dining or a casual lounge setting complete with contemporary music, Basho would be equally at home in Tokyo, New York or London.

Tak Ishiwata, the owner of Basho (which means place in Japanese), was born and raised in Newfoundland and Labrador after his parents moved from Tokyo just over 30 years ago.

Just as his restaurant changes the face of downtown St. John’s dining when it opened its doors on Duckworth Street in mid-December, Ishiwata was also challenged with the changing face of what was once Nageira’s restaurant (downstairs) and Finnegan’s Wake pub (upstairs).

“It was hard to envision because the inside interior décor had an old-style Irish tavern sort of look to it and it looked very cramped and small,” Ishiwata tells The Independent, “but once we put my concept in the place it looked; it’s almost too big right now. I mean it seats 100 people.”

Ishiwata is perched on a stool in the upstairs lounge. Behind him, a sleek bar, lit from beneath, curves past a row of windows looking over the top of Water Street to the harbour beyond. Tall tables and a couch are dotted around so customers can come in for a few drinks and/or appetizers (Basho’s martini reflects the restaurant’s unique menu). The décor is simple, but dramatic: black, red, grey and white, set off by Japanese prints and floral arrangements.

At the bottom of a wooden, winding staircase leading to the front door is an impressive painting of kabuki performers (kabuki is a form of Japanese theatre). The main fine-dining room is on the same floor. Another huge kabuki painting sets off the room and yet another decorates the hall towards a private conference room.

Ishiwata explains his grandfather painted the images. He died in a house fire about 10 years ago in Tokyo and only a few of his pieces were salvaged. On a recent trip back to Japan, Ishiwata’s aunt gave him the darkly dramatic painting’s to hang on his walls.

There are also some mounted photographs of Ishiwata and Chef Nobu Matsuhisa – who’s as well-known for his appearances on television shows like Martha Stewart Living his large celebrity following and his restaurants worldwide – as he is for cooking.
Two years ago when Ishiwata began seriously courting the idea of opening a restaurant, he had no idea he would get to build on his skills in Nobu’s world-famous Tokyo restaurant, meet his idol and even get to use some of Nobu’s personal recipes for his menu in St. John’s.

It came about when Ishiwata’s mother introduced him to a friend of hers in Tokyo. Over the years, his mother’s friend, Chef Negishi, had become one of the top chefs in Japan.

“We sat down for a meeting and he asked me who I’d like to train under,” says Ishiwata. “I said, ‘You know, I’d like to work under Nobu,’ and he said, ‘I’ll give him a call this afternoon.’ And within hours he called me back and told me ‘You can start at Nobu (Tokyo) whenever you want.’ “I was pretty excited; I’d been following his progress for about seven years”.

It was early 2005 and Ishiwata had just bought his venue in St. John’s before flying out to Japan. So he told Negishi he would return in four months after renovations on the building were underway.

Ishiwata already had some culinary and management training from New York’s Culinary Institute of America, but he spent six weeks with the chefs at Nobu Tokyo, learning his craft in hands-on fashion, in a restaurant frequented by high-ranking celebrities, politicians and service industry executives.

“It was excellent. It was pretty nerve-wracking. I cut my hands a couple of times. In the first day I think I lost half a fingernail. It was tough work.”

Although Nobu now lives in the US he visited his restaurant in Tokyo while Ishiwata was there – and even gave him some recipes as a gift.

“He’s just a genuinely, really nice guy;’ says Ishiwata. “I said it would be a great honour for me and my restaurant to have something that was inspired by him and he said, ‘Well Tak, what two items do you like?’”

Taken off guard, Ishiwata “blurted” out one item from off the top of his head (an asparagus and egg sauce appetizer with scallops and fish roe, which turned out to be a smart choice) as well as the item he had his eye on all along: Nobu style sashimi.

Sashimi is raw meat – usually fish – and Nobu (and now Basho) uses seasonal white fish, with garlic, ginger, chives, lemon and soya sauce.

“On top we have really hot olive oil and sesame oil. It’s almost smoking hot,” says Ishiwata. “You pour it on and it slightly cooks the fish and there’s little bits of potato crisps.”

Ishiwata says the dish is a great starting point for people wary of raw fish, or those who had a bad experience in the past. “People that don’t like sushi, they come here and (Basho) would probably change their mind.”

Ishiwata says Basho’s menu, which has a diverse range of artistically presented Japanese items, inspired by many different ethnicities, at a cost usually well under $32, will show people there’s a lot more to Japanese cuisine than sushi.

Although he says training in Tokyo was amazing, Ishiwata is happier bringing his cuisine to the locals in St. John’s. “Nobu Tokyo, if they wanted me to stay, I would have really had to sit down and think about it: but I have so much here.”

Basho opens at 6:00 pm onwards and will start opening for lunch within two months. A date for the grand opening is expected to be announced shortly.

Clare-Marie Gosse, The Independent, January 8, 2006.