25 April 2025
“When are you opening for dinner?” is a question I’ve been asked once or twice these past few months. And what a question. In addition to the logistical concerns, the concept for dinner at Ozu has eluded me, like a blurry image that won’t come into focus.
Business is booming and yet I feel a vague withering. My mind has been weighed down by sentiment and sentimentality—incredible sadness about the passing of time. I telephone my parents at their assisted living and we talk about the good old days. Their minds are filled with vivid memories of the distant past.
This month we started using ceramics at the restaurant. When I saw a sake bento on a simple white plate, I realized why I had started Ozu. There it was, dinner at the Ozawa house.
Floating through my upbringing was a feeling of love and freeness for the world through food. At home, my dad would talk to me about the great restaurants of Japan. It was like a mythical place. When we went over, I was initiated into this world of conjurer chefs, who could create a sense of place out of thin air. The feeling of trying something for the first time and feeling like it has always been with you has stayed with me my entire life. Over the years I’ve learned how to wield this power—how to order ingredients, how to prepare them, at what times, how to create this sense of being somewhere no matter where in the world I am. The tastes and sensibilities of those old Showa institutions, and the grand dishes they created. I have emptied them into my heart.
I am truly touched at all the love and support that has come to turn Ozu into something resembling a restaurant. It has been the honor of a lifetime to have the support of the community here. The people I’m indebted to cannot be listed in this short letter. They know who they are and I will spend the rest of my life returning their love.
This season will feature a menu resonating with the freeness I knew as a child, and that dream of chasing the sublime. Our first order with Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo is on its way and we’re ready to begin welcoming in guests for our first dinner this Friday evening.
seasonal crudités
sesame miso bagna cauda
goma dofu
fresh sesame tofu with shoyu & wasabi
owan
fish stock, white miso, wakame
nanohana ohitashi
rapini with sake-soy dressing
yukke
raw grass fed beef*, sesame, shoyu, garlic, aonori, endive
saba batterazushi
Kansai-style vinegared raw mackerel* over sushi rice
snapper shioyaki
roasted NZ snapper with yuzu agua de lourdes
sashimi
raw kinmedai, itoyori, hamachi, scallop, uni*
chirashi
raw kinmedai, itoyori, hamachi, scallop, uni, ikura,
over sushi rice*
ochazuke
raw itoyori sliced over rice, topped with hot green tea & dashi, aonori, arare
almond tart
yuzu curd, candied yuzu
meringue
yuzu curd, blackberry, candied yuzu (gf)