THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE 29- Changed colors
- Whited out
- Extra leg
- Looking away
- Lengthened brush
- Solid lid
- Extended
- No candy picture
- Missing snips
- Keyboard
- About-face
- No thermos
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SOLUTION TO PUZZLE
“TWO-TIMING,” MAY 1
KEY TO THE PREVIOUS SECOND GLANCE
MAY 1
PHOTOS: SCOTT SUCHMAN; ORIGINAL SECOND GLANCE PHOTO: RANDY MAYS
heat, is another source of pleasure. Cue the meaty pork ribs,
stacked on a bamboo leaf and glossed with a barbecue sauce
flavored with bonito. There are no finer scallops in town right
now than the fat, faintly smoky beauties at Shoto, which depart
the grill with plum butter and shiso and fairly melt on the
tongue.
Another sight for sore eyes is the front bar, where the
shelves display hand-blown glass containers of infused spirits
in gem colors and the counter finds an exuberant crew shaking,
stirring and sometimes proffering samples of their creations,
based on Japanese spirits. Tip No. 1: A whiskey sour made with
citrusy yuzu, lemon and frothy egg white has become my
favorite prompt to “kanpai!” Tip No. 2: The bar is where I go,
around the time the restaurant opens, if I want some of the
most exciting food in town but didn’t reserve weeks ahead.
You can opt to let the chefs serve you what they think is best
by asking for omakase. The only decision you need to make is
how much you want to spend for five courses: $115 or $195, the
latter for a meal built around Wagyu beef, lobster, truffles and
caviar.
The best strategy is to reserve at the chef’s counter, where
the person who made your sushi might actually hand it over
and introduce the fish. Kim buys most of his specialty fish from
Japan and prefers products on the creamy and fatty side:
Golden eye snapper, amberjack and sweet, uni-capped scallops
from Hokkaido were among the treasures on a recent visit.
Kim cuts fish with the precision of a Savile Row tailor. Like a
conscientious bartender, he also bothers to weigh the sugar
and salt for his sushi rice so that the seasoning is consistent
from one meal to the next. Notice how each piece of sushi is
presented as a single wonderful bite? Shoto translates to “short
sword” in Japanese, a name that marks the exactitude evident
throughout the restaurant.
The night I left dinner in the hands of the chefs brought
some lovely surprises. The excellent sushi, including chive-
speckled king salmon from New Zealand, was followed by
silken sea bass sporting a hillock of julienne daikon, carrot and
Japanese cress, a signature entree circled in a creamy yellow
sauce ignited with ginger and jalapeño. Lamb chops made an
appearance, and a big impression, too. The plump meat —
painted with pungent red miso, tingling sansho pepper, mirin
and more — shared its plate with tangy cucumbers and a whip
of tofu freckled with sesame seeds. Dessert — a slender bar of
yuzu-flavored cheesecake on a black sesame seed crust —
extended the bliss. The slice was also pretty, abetted by
garnishes of raspberries, strawberries, red drops of fruit gels
and tiny tiles of nori.
Throughout any night, passersby stop to admire the
spectacle inside, via the restaurant’s expansive front windows.
Now I know how the pandas feel at the Smithsonian’s National
Zoo.
Four visits also let me see splinters in the chopsticks. While
the owner says he doesn’t want Shoto to feel like a club, the
soundtrack conjures an attraction in Las Vegas, hold the
bachelorette parties. Servers tend to be knowledgeable,
friendly, sometimes even funny. When I asked a waiter about
his job one night, he told me he played three roles:
“Psychologist, nutritionist and photographer.” That said, food
spies have reported that VIPs can be fussed over at the expense
of parties seated right next to them. “Rushed!” a pal texted me
after she and her husband spent almost $400 for a birthday
splurge. “Ignored also. And indifferent.” Annoyingly, Shoto
asks you to use QR codes rather than order off a printed list, a
practice I’d like to see retired.
On a more buoyant note, Shoto, which has plans to expand
in North America, gathers one of the most diverse audiences in
Washington. The combination of stunning room and high-
quality food feels, to me, like the ideal follow-up to a slice of
land where the previous Washington Post building used to be.
Actually, the sense you’re someplace special starts at the
door, whose handle is a tree branch the designer found in a
forest outside Tokyo and had cast in bronze in England. Over
time, Naqi hopes the handle wears down from use. I’m more
than happy to help.