“Nihonbashi Kakigaracho Sugita” Mr. Takaaki Sugita
Known as one of the most difficult sushi restaurants to reserve, “Nihonbashi Kakigaracho Sugita” is not only famous for its excellent quality of *tsumami and sushi, but also for the chef Mr. Takaaki Sugita’s character and hospitality. In the Michelin Guide 2017, it was awarded Michelin 1 star and since then it has been attracting even more attentions worldwide. This time, Mr. Sugita talked about how the restaurant grew from its early days to today’s popularity as one of the most hard-to-book restaurants in Japan.
— It seems like you started you own restaurant by setting a branch of “Miyakozushi”, what made you decide to do so?
At the age of 28, wondering if this was the life I wanted by keeping my life as it was, I guessed that there was a greater world. At that time, I sometimes went out with the master participating in the meetings of the above mentioned Sushi Association, there I had a chance to contact other sushi chefs. By exchanging information with them, I started to think about changing my training place once. After so many wondering days until I rushed into my thirties, I was finally told to open a new branch by the master.
— Is that “Nihonbashi Tachibanacho Miyakozushi”?
To say precisely, it was in the same place but called “Higashi Nihonbashi Miyakozushi”. It was started by my senior who became independent roughly 2 years after I started training at “Miyakozushi”. However, it was closed 7 years later. Then, another senior who was elder than me but younger than that senior took over the restaurant, this time it only lasted for three and a half years. Then they tried to sell it, but no one would buy the sushi restaurant which has been failed twice.
That year, I was 30 years old, wondering if I should change my workplace. On December 31 that year, the master told me ” I can’t give you more money to open a new restaurant, but I could sell you Higashi Nihonbashi Miyakozushi, at a reasonable price if you want. Please decide in 2-3 days at most”. To tell you the truth, I was so confused and talked with my family, and finally decided to run the restaurant later.
— So you changed its name and reopened it.
Yes. At first, I was told by many that, “It is better to give up the name of Miyakozushi”, and I agreed. However, one day I heard the master suddenly saying ” I am so sad if it will no longer be ‘Miyakozushi’ anymore”. I had been learning many lessons and receiving so much help from the master for 12 years, and really did not want to see him so sad. I also believed this was my fate, so I started it using the same name adding the place “Nihonbashi Tachibana Cho”(old name of the town) after it, instead of “Higashi Nihonbashi”.
After three-year hard time with nearly no customer visiting, a turning point suddenly came, bringing it to today’s most difficult-to-book restaurant.
— Have you changed the style of making sushi from the time you studied in “Miyakozushi”?
Well, I inherited the way of seasoning *Kanpyo from Miyakozushi as it was, but others have all been changed. I had a lot of things I want to do in my own ways, so I tried and failed a lot in the 1~2 years from the opening. I tried to boil the rice harder or made it taste sourer, but was told by the customers, “Oh chef, I don’t believe one could eat this!”. Now I would laugh every time when I think of this. Now the seasoning sushi rice is made by the blend of amber vinegar made from rice and sake lees and the red vinegar made from sake lees. It was around 2010 or 2011 that it became to this style and it was also from this time it became to today’s so-called “difficult-to-book restaurant”.
*Kanpyo: dried gourd strips
— I know that ” Chef’s selection” is the main course menu, but is there any must-eat in it?
Tsumami is something you must try. Nori Rolls with Hikarimono such as mackerel and sardine inside, sweet monkfish liver are my recommendations, too. Also, certain kind of pickles seasoned for a whole year won’t disappoint you. As for sushi, it is Kohada. When you order nigiri sushi (hand-formed sushi), Kohada is always the first one to come. For our customers, there may be impression that “Nihonbashi Kakigaracho Sugita is the best for Kohada”.
“Nori roll of mackerel”
“Kohada”
— As one of the reasons for the popularity of “Nihonbashi Kakigaracho Sugita”, I often heard that staffs and chef pay very close attention to each customer when providing tsumami or sushi. Is this something you always keep in mind?
I have been enjoying making people laugh since I was a child. So I have been longing to work in the service industry for a long time. I somehow thought I am the one for this kind of job. The feeling of making people happy is always in deep side of my heart. I do not feel that I am doing it for work at all. Perhaps just because of my unconscious hospitality I received such popularity from customers. I also teach our young staffs how I think of service in every details.
— I have been told that it’s difficult to reserve a seat, could you please tell us the mechanism of the reservation system?
As for the counter seats, basically at the beginning of a month, next month’s reservations are acceptable. However, since customers who have visited once might reserve for the next time when they come to the restaurant, thus some seats might be already filled at this stage. At the beginning of each month, telephone reservation service is available from 9 o’clock to 15 o’clock, but usually all the seats would be filled in the first hour. There is one private room for four people, for which we begin to accept reservations from one week before. Unlike counter seats that give you a feeling of live, private room provides space for 3~4 customers to talk freely. For the menu, chef’s selection course is mainly made up of a small dish, 7 tsumami, 11 nigiri ” main. From Tuesday to Saturday, two turnovers at night; on Sunday: two turnovers in the day and one at night.
A greeting from the chef to Pocket Concierge’s customers
With many supports from our customers, “Nihonbashi Kakigaracho Sugita” has been running and growing since our opening on 27th October 2015. Recently (December 2016), overseas customers become gradually increasing since we hired one staff who can speak English. In the future, we will continue every effort to provide better sushi for everyone to enjoy their experience here. Thank you very much.
Know more about this restaurant here＞＞＞sugita （すぎた）
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