Sushi master Takayama turns his knife skills to meat
One of New York’s most anticipated restaurants is finally opening its doors. Tetsu, the TriBeCa robata grill with an elite downstairs tasting menu from one of the world’s most acclaimed sushi chefs, will officially open in this month.
There are few restaurateurs more associated with fish than Masa Takayama. At his eponymous Time Warner Center restaurant, the cherubic chef has redefined the experience of eating raw seafood.
And what that privilege can cost: A meal at Masa currently rings in at US$595, excluding beverages and tax.
At Tetsu, Takayama will turn his attention to a different protein: Meat. On the main floor of the bi-level space on Leonard Street, he’ll serve robata grilled skewers, soups, and stews; downstairs, at the luxe Basement, he’ll offer a reservationsonly omakase menu that highlights cuts butchered from whole animals.
Tetsu has been on the verge of opening for years; word of the project first came out in 2012. The chef says he got the idea soon after he came to New York in 2004 to open Masa. “Sundays are my only day off, and when I first moved to New York I was always looking for a place where I could enjoy some delicious, flavourful food.
“I could never find a restaurant that satisfied exactly what I was looking for, so I decided to just build it.” He adds: “I wanted Tetsu to evoke the experience of dining around the robata (a charcoal grill surrounded by diners0, to feel like you’re in my home.”
In the interim, Takayama says the delays were ones that any restaurant going into an 1865 landmarked New York building would have faced. The famously perfectionist chef has also created his own roadblocks: Almost every detail of the restaurant, from the height of the bar and the finish of its castiron top to the weight of the serving platters has been obsessed over, and tweaked, by Takayama. The result is a space that feels vintage TriBeCa, with 14ft ceilings, restored Corinthian columns, and plenty of iron work. (Tetsu translates as ‘iron’.) The main floor is domi-
nated by a 36ft counter fashioned from a single Japanese Bubinga tree, with a mezzanine level decorated with zig-zag cables.
Unconventional omakase
If the plan for the main floor is to be highly accessible, the plan for the downstairs, called Basement, is to create extreme dinner parties.
The reservations-only space has 34 seats situated between a long counter facing the kitchen and individual tables crafted from metal and designed by the chef. The omakase menu will be priced at US$295. Masa considered a higher price, one that crept closer to Masa’s, then discarded the idea.
The menu will range from 1012 courses. “There will be a generous use of caviar and truffles, my two favourite things to eat - only the top, best ingredients,” promises Takayama.
His focus will be on specially prepared whole fish and birds and large meat cuts, including Ohmi beef, known as the world’s top waygu. “Dishes will be prepared in different ways, depending on my mood. Basement is more about a concept and vision.”