The Lure of JKP

I was running 15 min early to catch up with my dear friend, JKP, and decided to partake in happy hour at Lure, a seafood-centric restaurant located in Soho. To get the party started, I ordered 2 dozen Blue Point oysters- slick, briny, and ample. These aren’t the anemic, shriveled specimens you find at other happy hours. The dish of shrimp tempura was also delicious - crispy breading topped with a spicy mayo sauce. After washing that down with a glass of their house chardonnay, I dug into the deviled eggs and the fried oysters with tartar sauce, which is up there with my favorite rendition at Pearl Oyster Bar.

The aroma of Drakkar Noir wafted from behind and I knew JKP had arrived. We exchanged pleasantries but things quickly turned for the worst. You see, JKP is many things: a shrewd businessman always on the hustle, an unselfish wingman who jumps on grenades with arms wide open, and a Jewish Usher/Timberlake/Chris Brownesque dancer that delights the crowd at many bar mitzvahs and K-town karaoke bars.

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Sushi Nakazawa: The Apprentice Becomes a Master

My first meal of 2014 was at Sushi Nakazawa, a restaurant that I couldn't get a reservation for last year.

The early buzz was due in part to the fact that its head chef was Daisuke Nakazawa, the hard-working apprentice seeking perfection in the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi.  In the film, he made over 200 tamagoyaki before getting a nod of approval by Jiro. That tireless commitment to exacting standards would translate well when Nakazawa made his American debut in 2011 at Shiro’s, a restaurant owned by a fellow Jiro apprentice. My friend Kevin recounted a positive experience and said that a flight to Seattle was warranted just to try the omakase.

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