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“One thing I really like is my chef is very stubborn,” says Danny Sin. “I respect that.”
Today Sin opens Kaikaya Japanese Sushi and Sake Bar. (They’ve been open for sushi, but today marks the grand opening of the full kitchen.) Sin, the manager, and head chef Dongsoo Kim, both Korean natives, are trying to find a balance on the menu. On the way to the restaurant yesterday, Sin and I talked about how he can make his uncompromising chef happy, allowing for high-quality, and therefore higher-priced, sushi on the menu, with what Sin thinks should also find kitchen space: drunk food.
Sin is only slightly more careful in his wording. He talks about the “young crowd” and the “few restaurants opened until 12 [midnight] with a bar” in Centreville, and “pick-up food,” and how the Korean drink soju “is really good paired with spicy soup or something salty or greasy.” To that end, there’s a dish of bacon fried with bean sprouts and jalapeno and a jeyuk omelette roll, spicy fried pork mixed into the egg. There’s ramen, splitting the difference, both with chef-y touches like a broth born from two days of cooking down pork bones, chicken bones and seaweed, and is great both at noon and midnight. There’s udon soups too, plus curries (and one topped with mozzarella, thanks to the Korean cheese craze), rice dishes (Korean and Japanese versions) and raw fish bowls (Korean, Japanese and Hawaiian versions).
Kim, who trained and owned restaurants in Korea and most recently worked at Centreville’s Tomo, is focused on the sushi program, which Sin says is about 70 percent of the menu. It will range from what’s-fresh specials―fish is delivered four times a week―and concoctions like the mango tango: crab meat, spicy salmon, cream cheese, panko-fried avocado, mango salsa and two different sauces.
Yesterday, Sin—who has been in the industry since he started tending bar at 21 and worked his way up from managing Cinnabons to owning Yogi Castle, which he’s since sold his share of—still needed to train staff on the POS (point of sale) system, make sure the sushi bar, the beverage bar and the kitchen have everything they need and finalize the menu.
There’s still that pull between Kim, who wants a more traditional Japanese menu, and Sin, who wants to please customers at all hours of the day and night. “We’re in a very complicated situation,” says Sin. At least there’s tteokbokki. // Kaikaya opens today, and for the next 30 days there’s 15 percent-off the entire bill; 14107 St. Germain Drive, Centreville
