E2 eZ ee the washington post.wednesday, march 11 , 2020
I agree, it’s too sweet for dinner.
Savory is more my speed: sliced
pepperoni with pickled
jalapeños or a scattering of
clam, seaweed and (lots of )
garlic.
Utagawa says To nari is “the
least Japanese of our restaurants.”
Ye t the design renders it “the
most Japanese looking.” Host to
the showy tiled pizza oven, the
ground floor is bright and
bustling. My preference is a perch
upstairs, where half the seating
obliges diners to slip off their
shoes, drop to the floor and tuck
their legs into spacious holes
beneath low tables. (Servers get a
workout with all the bobbing up
and down to fill water glasses and
crouching to add and remove
plates.) Standard tables populate
the rest of the second floor, set off
with a handsome moss garden
and alive with the sound of jazz.
The space is certainly familiar
to the owners, who looked at the
building as a home for Daikaya
before opting to open the ramen
source next door.
An evening of pasta and pizza
are best followed by something
light for dessert. The kitchen
obliges with a refreshing
grapefruit granita covering
vanilla ice cream, a combination
that goes down like a creamsicle(easily). At the table, a server
gives the confection a spritz of
grapefruit perfume, a sensory
enhancement Fukushima recalls
from his time at the novel
Minibar by José Andrés, and yet
another reminder you’re eating
somewhere deliciously different.
[email protected]707 sixth st. nW. 202-289-8900.
tonaridc.com. pizza and pasta, $12 to
$17.food and dining Editor: Joe yonan- Voraciously Editor: matt brooks
- Recipes editor: ann maloney •
Art director: amanda soto •
designer: twila Waddy • Photo
editor: Jennifer beeson gregory •
food critic: tom sietsema • Lead
Voraciously writer: becky Krystal •
Staff writers: tim Carman; emily
heil • Editorial assistant: Kari
sonde • Assignment editor: olga
massov • Copy editors: Jim
Webster; Jordan melendrez
l Contact us: [email protected],
202-334-7575. the Washington
post, food, 1301 K st. nW,
Washington, d.C. 200 71
foodme before. Trust me when I tell
you the curtain of tuna-anchovy
sauce over the buttery fruit is
inspired, as are the grapefruit
pieces nestled under the
avocado, a surprise spark.
I’ve yet to encounter a pasta I
wouldn’t want to twirl again. But
if you’re looking for something
you won’t find in an Italian
restaurant, the springy tagliatelle
tossed with baby sardines, olive
oil and red pepper flakes rivals
the long, thick bigoli made
creamy and rich with a puree of
sea urchin, white soy sauce and
kombu (seaweed) stock. To nari
also makes a meaty Bolognese
that gets its pleasant funk from
natto, or fermented soybeans.
There’s no other pizza in town
quite like To nari’s. The seductive
crust — pillowy in the center,
crisp on the edges, faintly sweet
(like Japanese bread) — is aided
by a pan that’s brushed with the
same kind of rice oil used to
cook tempura.
“ Yo u can get clam, pepperoni,
Hawaiian pizza anywhere,” a
server says one night, pushing
us instead toward a creamy
topping of tangy Kewpie
mayonnaise and canned corn,
along with scallions and brick
cheese. A companion compared
the combination to dessert, andThe reason you’re
eating Japanese-
inflected Italian
food from the trio
behind some of
Washington’s
most popular ramen stops boils
down to a design feature they
inherited from the Chinatown
restaurant that preceded their
new Tonari.
The oven made them do it —
specifically the beautiful domed
pizza cooker left behind by
Graffiato. “We couldn’t think of
taking it down,” s ays chef
Katsuya Fukushima.
He and his business partners,
Daisuke Utagawa and Yama
Jewayni, own two other
restaurants on the block, the
adjacent Daikaya and Bantam
King around the corner, plus
Haikan and Hatoba in the
Atlantic Plumbing Building and
the Navy Yard neighborhood,
respectively. Ahead of opening
their fifth venue, the owners
referred to the unnamed space
as “next door” s o often, Jewayni
finally asked how it translated in
Japanese. Tonari, he was told.
The word stuck.
The concept has a name in
Japan: wafu Italian. “The
Japanese are good at borrowing
from others and making it their
own,” s ays Fukushima.
G ood products help. The
noodles for To nari, made with
flour from Hokkaido, come from
the same company in Sapporo,
Nishiyama Seimen, from which
the owners buy their ramen
joints. Expect some nice
chewiness from the pasta. The
dough for the pizza relies on
flour milled in Japan and a base
finished by Lyon Bakery in
Maryland. The result yields a
cross between focaccia and
Detroit-style.
Consider a few small plates to
start. Slivered snow peas,
edamame and a drift of ricotta, a
salad tied with yuzu vinaigrette,
make a bright beginning.
To nnato and roasted avocado
isn’t a marriage that occurred to
The oven was inherited, so Tonari delivers pizza as only the Japanese can
photos by Laura Chase de formigny for the Washington post
LEFT: The mentaiko and corn pizza has brick cheese, Kewpie mayo-corn puree and scallions. RIGHT: Tagliatelle with olive oil, baby sardines, garlic and red pepper flakes.Tom
Sietsema
First Bite
At Tonari in Chinatown, chef
Katsuya Fukushima is taking
full advantage of the beautiful
domed pizza cooker left behind
by Graffiato. “We couldn’t think
of taking it down,” he says.
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