Japanese Restaurants in New York

Matsuri

A festival of food, culture, and craftsmen

The Japanese love matsuri (festivals). At any time of year, somewhere on these small islands, one can find people rushing off to a local shrine to join in celebration. Today, the religious tones have faded, and ceremonies that once honored spirits and ancestors give precedence to drawing crowds to enjoy the festivities.

Since opening in October 2003, Chelsea's Matsuri has been drawing crowds night after night, bustling like the event it is named for. The cavernous space sets the spirit soaring, like stepping into the grounds of a nighttime festival. Paper lanterns large and small float in the restaurant's "night sky" like sacred tablets enshrining spirits. The life force flowing through the black ink lines of the calligraphy, which covers the walls and lanterns, ripples through the atmosphere. The calligraphy for the restaurant logo and on the lanterns is the work of Mikio Shinagawa's father, Tetsuzan; the calligraphy on the walls is by Mikio himself.

Washi lanterns designed by Kyoto craftsman Yukio Kitagawa hang above the main dining room.

Bay scallop sashimi with red ume vinegar jelly.

As at Omen, the restaurant he owns in SoHo, every corner of Matsuri's interior reflects the skill of Japanese craftsmen. Enclosing the reception area are fine-grained earthen walls executed by a craftsman brought in from Shinagawa's hometown of Kyoto exclusively to do this work. The Edo-period (1603-1867) tansu chest employed as the reception desk is but the first of many Japanese antiques used throughout the restaurant. The wooden lattice door to the bar is from an old sake brewery in Kyushu, and above the doorway hangs a shimenawa, the thick rope made of twisted rice straw that marks a place considered sacred in the Shinto tradition. Then, proceeding to the mezzanine bar, which overlooks the main dining room, you see those warmly glowing lanterns dance before your eyes.

"The common denominator of Japanese cuisine," says Matsuri chef Tadashi Ono, "is fresh ingredients." Renowned in New York for his three-star fusion Japanese-French cuisine, Ono now has a single objective behind his culinary creations: to exploit the fresh ingredients brought from Japan. And that he does with tantalizing flair every day.

Together with the calligrapy on the walls, the lanterns give the space a festively charged atmosphere.

The taste that Shinagawa had at long last encountered, the "taste of Japan" albeit unfamiliar to postwar Japan, is the natural taste that Mother Earth has perpetually fostered. Shinagawa's desire to convey that taste via Japanese culture is consistent with Ono's. "The older I get," Ono says, "the more I sense the wonders of Japan. My mission at Matsuri is to celebrate that wealth of foods and delicate culture."

The latest fruits of Katsuhiko Takedomi's award-winning agricultural craft will debut in Ono's imaginative cuisine as new items on Matsuri's summer menu.

MATSURI
369 W. 16th Street (in the Maritime Hotel), Chelsea
Tel. 212-243-6400
Open Sunday through Wednesday, 6 PM to midnight; Thursday through Saturday, 6 PM to 1 AM

Articles from the 2004 SUMMER issue:

Kateigaho International Edition Issues:

2005 SUMMER - 2005 SPRING - 2005 WINTER

2004 AUTUMN - 2004 SUMMER - 2004 SPRING - 2004 WINTER

2003 AUTUMN - INAUGURAL ISSUE