- Caviar just came in for today.
This is gonna be for the caviar hand roll,
which has been kind of a signature dish,
something we've definitely been known for
for the past few years.
- [Producer] What's the trick to it?
- I think a lot of caviar. - Yeah.
- Give a lot of caviar.
One of the ways that we taste it, of course,
is just having a mouthful of it.
We're looking at the pearls. We're looking at the shine.
The color, of course, is beautiful.
But then, also, the flavor is one
of the most important things.
It's a tough day at the job, man.
- A lot of work.
- Yeah. Caviar hand roll has about 30 grams,
30 plus grams of caviar, which is a huge mouthful.
- This is a Japanese grain called tsuyahime,
coming from Yamagata, Japan,
mixing in a little bit of a Japanese black vinegar
and mirin as well.
- And now, caviar,
if you bought it at another restaurant,
at one of these big caviar houses,
it's gonna cost you four to five times
what we sell it for.
So, we're trying to make it still affordable,
still an approachable price point.
This will last us maybe a day, day and a half,
but I only bring out a small bowl during service.
So, we're doing the caviar hand roll.
Start with the Japanese nori.
This is our sushi rice marinated
with the black vinegar, fresh wasabi.
- [Raymond] And again,
to really understand what caviar's flavor profile is,
why it's so great in life.
- And, some caviar.
- I think the temaki is one of the best ways
to deliver that.
When we go to a restaurant,
we see a plate that has so many auxiliary ingredients,
all these things that accompanies it.
Just give me the caviar.
- Right now, we're a pretty small team,
still trying to build up staff.
So, it's just me and two Alexes. Two guys.
Alex 1, Alex 2.
Looking for a third Alex if anyone was looking for a job.
This is for the first dish on the menu, the breakfast taco.
- Right now, we're pealing the eggs.
- Breakfast taco.
We both grew up in Arizona eating those all the time,
turned into, "What if we did a taco?"
- We have it on a rolling cycle,
and it needs about two days for the flavor
to really set into the egg.
- Time-wise, this is definitely one of my bigger projects
of the day.
This is a very non-traditional way
of making tortillas per se.
- We started, first, testing out the recipes
for the taco.
We tried making flour tortillas a lot of different ways.
Using the pasta machine is not the most traditional method,
but it works really well, and it works for us.
It's super efficient.
If it works, it works, whether it's traditional or not.
We've been cooking in restaurants a long time,
doing either other people's food or even,
at the last place, doing Japanese food.
But, we've never really told our story, our background.
We've been able to bring that to the menu.
Flour tortillas.
- I think that's why the breakfast taco
was so important to us.
It kind of offers a little bit of our past.
- Put the salsa verde on the bottom.
Fried hash brown.
- A little bit of that French technique,
a lot of Japanese ingredients,
with a little bit of southwest.
- It's also the highbrow/lowbrow,
It's a taco, but it has trout roe.
- [Raymond] Yeah.
- So, this is all the ash from last night.
First thing in the morning, take all the old ash out
so we can get the oven clean, ready for today.
We've been looking for a restaurant space
for a couple of years,
started before pandemic around September last year.
We found this space, used to be a pizza place.
Great big wood oven.
Oven is still 550 degrees,
just leftover over from last night, the heat.
We'll kind of let this cool down until about 400, 420.
Then, we'll bake the bread.
This is bread flour and rye flour.
Before pandemic,
I'd never really done any kind of sourdough baking.
I had a lot of time to work on it last year.
This is black cocoa powder.
This is our seed mixture. So it's pumpkin seeds, sunflower.
Sort of let this finish heating in the last five minutes,
and then come back for and add the butter and salt.
Kneed that again,
and then, we'll start the folding process after that.
This is now the last step of bread,
portioning it out to go into the baskets.
Then, we'll put this in the fridge,
basically let it slow proof overnight.
This is the bread that we made yesterday.
Now, we're gonna bake it in the wood oven.
No one told us that this is the way to do it.
It just kind of happened by testing over time.
We realized that when we came in the next day,
the oven was still hot and ready to bake,
so it was perfect for the bread.
- I asked Sam to get me a headlamp for this,
but he said I'd have to wear it all day if he got one.
- I heard you were talking about a headlamp.
- Right?
Figure if I can get it out there,
I can get a GoFundMe for my headlamp.
This is definitely the first thing we do every day
because we have to get the fire going in the oven
for all the other things we need to do.
Some days like today is a good example
where we come in and the oven's just way too hot
to bake bread, every once in a while.
So, sometimes, those days we can get slowed down a little.
- One of the downsides of using the fire
is you have to use a whole lot of wood,
a lot more manual labor than we expect of this.
- Here we have the Berkshire pork ribs.
We brine them for two days.
Then, we take them out, and we smoke them in the oven.
- [Samuel] Berkshire short rib.
- We originally tried all the proteins,
every single thing that we could put in the oven,
that we could smoke out, to figure out what held up best.
The short rib actually held up the most,
brining it for about three days,
really increasing the moisture in it,
but also changing the textures throughout those times.
- Then, it goes here in the oven.
You wanna make sure it's really raging.
- So, this is definitely one
of the longest process items we have.
We have to start it at least three to four days
before we need it for service,
means that come service time,
it's not gonna take too much work.
- [Alex] This is when they're done.
- So now, we're on one of the last steps
for the pork short rib.
It's already been brined, smoked, sous vide, and pressed.
Now, we're just portioning it for service tonight.
Try to get equal sized pieces for everyone.
I think it really just highlights
what kind of meat can come out of this kitchen,
the way it carries the smokiness of the whole kitchen.
This is our wood fire grill hearth
that we cook a lot of things over.
This is a Japanese charcoal grill.
So, we'll do a charcoal on this side,
a wood fire on this side.
During service, we'll put the short rib up here.
It kind of sits in the smoke all night,
just gently warming over the fire.
It touches literally every fire source we have.
It smokes in the wood oven.
It's smoked on the wood grill,
seared on the Japanese charcoal.
I think it's really a product of the kitchen.
- Yeah.
I've had people from St. Louis,
all over the east coast here,
say that was some of the best barbecue they had.
We're not a barbecue restaurant.
- Yeah, I didn't intend it to be a nod to American barbecue,
but it just ended up that way.
- This is a cardamom cake.
This is the base layer of the Baked Alaska.
So, we wanted to come up with some kind of dessert
that basically would highlight the wood oven
that we're using.
One of the mainstays of everyday prep for me
is the Baked Alaska.
When we put it in the oven,
it got this almost crispy exterior with the meringue
that you don't usually get just from torching it.
The process of creating the cake underneath,
having sorbet spun every day, scooping it,
refreezing it, making the meringue.
This is a lingonberry sorbet that I'm scooping.
I'll scoop it on top of the cardamom cake,
and then put that back in the freezer.
Once that refreezes a little bit,
we'll dip it into a meringue to create the Alaska.
You wanna kind of scoop fast,
but they also have to be all the same size and look nice.
But, if you go too slow,
and then it's gonna start to melt
before you can put it back in the freezer.
I'm gonna start making the soy milk for the tofu dish.
So, we have soybeans that just soaked in water overnight.
We don't work with a lot of recipes.
It's more just kind of knowing what to look for
and cooking like that.
The soybean to water ratio,
I don't really have exact measurement.
It's just kind of each day we make it.
We look for different things of what to improve
and how to make it better.
For the tofu dish, we'll start with dried soybeans.
We turn that into the soy milk
before making the actual tofu itself
instead of just buying soy milk somewhere.
you get a much more soy flavor.
The soybean mixture just came to a boil,
so now, it's just strain it through a chinois.
Then, we'll have fresh soy milk.
- I grew up, and no offense to my parents.
I love them, love them to death.
My parents used to make tofu once a week,
and it was never great, have to say.
- This becomes the soft tofu
that's served with grilled carrots.
- These are red dragon carrots.
They have this nice purple flesh.
Then, on the inside, they're either yellow or orange.
So, the first step to cooking them is we blanch them.
Once they come out and cool, you can see on the inside.
Each one's different as well.
If you see this one, that one was the same, of course.
(Alex laughs)
You cut that.
Of course, all of them are the same.
Yeah, there you go.
So, from here, we're gonna chop them up and mix them
with a little bit of a garlic oil.
We're gonna cook them over the Japanese grill.
He only put six logs in there.
When you get this thing really going,
it sparks up and everything.
It's kind of cool.
- I came into work one time and Sam was just like,
"Here, here. Try this real quick,"
and put a spoon in my mouth.
And, it was fresh tofu.
- This is plating the tofu course.
So, these are the grilled carrots tossed
in a sriracha sesame dressing.
- I was really blown away by the textures, the flavor of it.
- This is the set tofu.
- I'm always impressed that he can actually make tofu better
than my parents can.
Sorry, mom.
- Potato course kind of came about a few weeks ago.
I was looking for a new dish to put on the menu.
Me and the two Alexes,
we found these amazing potatoes
that are just naturally super creamy, super flavorful.
What can we do build a dish around this potato
and highlight that?
And, that kind of took more of a,
I don't like to say a clam chowder route.
- For this dish, we actually warmed the potato up
in the oven right before we do it.
And, the eel is also smoked.
- This is the smoked eel that goes on top of a potato dish.
I've used American Unagi in the past.
We tried getting some eels
from them and smoking them in house,
and it came out pretty good.
We were happy with it.
But, we tried the product that they smoked,
and honestly, it's better.
- Having that smoked unagi on the bottom side
is like having the best kind of bacon.
- All right.
So now, we're gonna confit the Prince of Orange potatoes.
Basically, you just cook it until it's done.
- I feel like it's hard to be impressed
just by a peered potato,
but these are just so creamy and amazing texture,
just naturally.
Already on the bottom of the plate is the smoked unagi.
We have the Prince of Orange potato,
fresh cracked black pepper.
This is aioli made with paprika and mussels.
On top is some sorrel.
- When Sam is talking about,
"Oh yeah, this is somewhat like a chowder in a sense."
- And then, a table side sauce poured
of the potato skin and mussel broth.
- A lot of our guests walk away feeling that.
It's rich, it's homey, it's familiar in a sense,
but maybe you haven't had it composed just quite like that.
It's been a hit so far.
- So, it's about two o'clock in the afternoon now,
kind of making our way through the prep list for the day,
still waiting on salmon to come in.
It's one of those things you hope it's gonna come in time.
If not, it's like,
"Are we gonna have salmon on the menu tonight?"
We'll see, don't really have a backup.
So, kind of at the mercy of the drivers today.
This is the Swiss meringue for the Baked Alaskas.
A lot of our days, having a set schedule
of when things need to get done by
like making the Baked Alaskas.
If I scoop the sorbet, and later in the afternoon,
there's not enough time to get ice cream refroze
and finish the Alaskas, things like that.
Now, the meringue is pretty nice, stiff peaks.
We'll take the scooped sorbet, kind of dip it all around.
Nice, little...
So, working here with only having the wood fire,
we don't have any gas stove, it's just all wood fire.
It's actually nice to kind of have that kind of constraint.
I think it actually helps boost creativity
when you have guidelines that you have to work within.
So, we try to have every dish have either some smoke element
or touches the wood fire at least in some way.
So then, we'll hold these again in the freezer.
- This just came through the doors here for you.
- Finally.
So, it's about 3:30 now,
only a couple of hours until services.
It came in pretty late today.
So, we gotta move pretty quick to get it turned around.
A lot of my experience working in restaurants in the past
has been working with mostly Japanese fish and products.
It has been a great exposure for me to really learn how
to take care of fish.
We're building off of many,
wanted to have some kind of raw crudo course.
It just felt natural to wanna highlight fish, raw fish,
and have our take on that.
So, this is definitely one of the things that I've done,
broken down hundreds or thousands of fish
over the past 15 years.
It's kind of second nature now,
just do what needs to be done.
Do it quickly. Do it nicely.
So now, the salmon's broken down,
slicing it for dinner service tonight.
- On first glance, you see a lot of Japanese inspirations,
a lot of Japanese techniques, of course.
- This is our king salmon,
brushed with a little bit of fresh ponzu.
- But, I think overall, when I look at a dish like that,
there's salmon, there's apple, there's terragon,
I really think New York.
- This is our smoked apple vinaigrette.
- When people ask us about what type of food are you?
We kind of fall back on saying modern American
or new American,
but I think overall, it is very much a New York style menu.
Gravlax and apples is New York City.
- So, it's 5:30. We're just cleaning up.
We open at six,
we're just getting the restaurant
into tip-top, beautiful condition.
Alex Number Two is a frying his potatoes.
- [Alex Number Two] 2.0.
- 2.0 is frying his hash browns for the breakfast taco.
And, Sam is building the fire over here.
- So, it's six o'clock right now.
Service is starting. People are coming in to sit down.
We're gonna start getting the first orders
within the next couple minutes,
and probably pretty busy within about 30 minutes from now.
Order for crudo.
- One crudo.
- Two more crudo. Six.
- People definitely try to pinhole what our food is.
"Well, it's called this. No, it's this."
It's just our food.
This is just what we wanna do.
There's all things from all over the world,
all over the country.
And, for me, that's very New York.
This is the most diverse city I've ever lived in
or ever got to experience.
- Handles on six.
Two potato walking in. Five tacos walking in.
One of our chefs is out on the floor.
I'll be happy to take over a little bit,
get back into the kitchen.
It's nice that we can all take turns.
Everyone should know every job here.
We've worked in some really amazing restaurants
in our lives.
I think what we're trying to do here
is a little bit different.
You don't wanna be $150 price point, $200 price point,
to force you to get all the ingredients
that you might not love.
You don't have to spend a lot of money
to have a great time to go eat at dinner.
- But, bringing the same level of attention to details
and service that we would bring at a higher price point.
Two squash.
- When you look at it, again,
it's not just Japanese, it's not just French.
It's not just Nordic or American.
Being where we're at now, I'm happy that Sam is a chef,
is a cook in life,
can actually explore any type of food that he, you want to.
Because you're not pigeonholed in doing,
"Oh, this is just Japanese," or "This is just French."
You can do whatever you want here.
We're always exploring more, always learning more as a team.
But then, our guests get to come back so often
and see that we're creating new dishes, new ideas.
- If you come back six weeks later,
you're gonna get probably a mostly new menu
cause we're always just looking for changes
and keeping it seasonal.
And, we get bored of doing the same thing.
Change it up.
- On table three, myself.
- We've known each other for 15 years,
but working together 14 of those years.
I moved out to New York to actually go work with him.
Always happy to have someone like Sam around you.
Always uplifted me,
always wanted me to be the best I could be,
and always had my back throughout everything.
Going to table 11.
And, I thought that was really important,
especially opening a new business together,
a restaurant together.
We always knew we had each other's backs.
- You need to work with people you trust.
There's no one I know or trust more than Ray.
- Dude, he's my best friend.
- Fire for Alaska.
- Getting to come to work every day,
working with people I love in life and care about,
is all I'm looking for.
- This is our wood fire Baked Alaska.
Looks very simple from the outside.
As you kind of tap through the meringue,
see that inside.
- [Producer] Thank you, sir.