Chef Fumio Yonezawa is trading Tokyo for San Francisco as he opens his new restaurant Shinka on Friday, October 9, located on the ground floor of the Jay, Autograph Collection, a hotel in the Financial District.
Born in Japan, Yonezawa first cut his teeth
in kitchens learning Italian cuisine in Tokyo before leaping to New York and joining Jean-Georges as a sous chef in 2002. Yonezawa eventually made his way back to Japan as part of the opening team of Jean-Georges Tokyo. After leaving Jean-Georges he opened omakase restaurants No Code in Tokyo and Taipei, plus the more casual NY Bistro by No Code.
Yonezawa moved to San Francisco in September to take advantage of the opportunity to open Shinka. He thought it’d not only be a good opportunity for his career, but also for his daughters to learn English and experience living in California. “I like California, I like San Francisco — all of the Bay Area,” Yonezawa says. “The produce is nice, the fruit, vegetables, it’s really beautiful, and the weather is amazing … I wanted to work here one day.”
Yonezawa’s debut U.S. restaurant pairs Japanese flavors with French technique, grounded in Bay Area produce. Shinka debuts with a tasting menu, with Yonezawa and his team making dashi, bonito flakes, koji, and even a jalapeño koji, which form the backbone of many of the dishes. Yonezawa’s dish, Taste of California, is part of the opening menu and best expresses his mix of influences; sliced heirloom tomatoes pair with seasonal fruit such as raspberries and grapes, all immersed in an ohitashi that is a mix of ichiban dashi and a three-day ferment of tomato consomme. “It looks like the dish is almost a French dish, but when you eat it, you can [taste] Japanese flavor,” Yonezawa says. “That’s what I’m looking for.”
Elsewhere on the menu, Yonezawa has chawanmushi made with a mushroom puree, eggs, miso, and house dashi for the custard base. It’s topped with Dungeness crab and black truffle butter dashi. A miso cod also makes its way onto the menu, and despite being more typically a dish seen at izakayas, it’s a favorite that Yonezawa wanted for his meal. Locally caught cod is marinated in shio koji and cooked, then dressed in a vin blanc with bonito flakes added to it. The menu ends in a dessert course, also made by Yonezawa, with a cheesecake made with shiroan, a white bean paste used in dessert, and white chocolate, and a sorbet made with sake lees, a byproduct of the sake process.
On Monday, October 12, the restaurant will add an a la carte option as well. Yonezawa shares that a few of the dishes from the tasting menu, such as the chawanmushi and the Taste of California dish will be available, will also appear a la carte at the bar. Yonezawa expects to expand the a la carte selection even further as he and the restaurant team get more acclimated.
Franco Bilbaeno, who worked with the Prelude team, also runs the drinks program at Shinka. The restaurant’s sake program showcases artisanal and renowned producers, but there will also be a wine component that features Old and New World producers, available as a pairing with the meal, or by the bottle or glass. On the spirits side, Japanese whisky will have a presence, including some rarer options. Bilbaeno is also crafting a new drinks menu for Shinka, with an emphasis on Japanese ingredients. Nobita’s Old Fashioned mixes Japanese whisky and bourbon, with an addition of kinako, or toasted soybean flour, and maple. Cafe Odori, meanwhile, is a drink composed of Japanese whisky sweetened with kokuto, a sugar made from slow-cooked sugar cane made in Okinawa, and the addition of cacao, then whipped cream — nodding a bit toward Irish coffee – and served hot or cold.
Yonezawa says that as the restaurant begins to welcome guests, he wants to hear feedback from diners and industry folks as he adjusts to his new home in San Francisco and the palates of his new guests. “I’m Japanese; I wanted to show what the real Japanese flavor [is], not like Japanese food, but Japanese flavor, and then combine it with local ingredients, which is beautiful produce and seafood,” Yonezawa says. “So I think this is a really great combination between Japanese flavor and the local ingredients in here.”
Shinka (333 Battery Street, San Francisco) debuts on Friday, October 9, and is open from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
