Each night time in the darkest, most miserable depths of the pandemic, one TV present, which I watched again and again, helped get me by means of. Midnight Diner, a collection on Netflix set in a Tokyo restaurant, grew to become a therapeutic balm and a reminder of the heat of being round individuals.
The chef at this izakaya, referred to solely as “Grasp,” cooks surrounded by a service counter on three sides, at which loyal regulars sit bathing in every others’ firm. Maybe considered a unusual cousin to the Nineteen Eighties NBC sitcom Cheers, each episode tells a candy, unhappy, or sometimes heartbreaking story. Grasp, a person of few phrases with a mysterious scar on his face, is like their conscience and a confidant, serving to make sense of the world. Characters are variety, quirky, and dependable.
As a taxi glides dreamily by means of the Shinjuku neighborhood within the opening credit, Grasp provides slightly voice-over: “When individuals end their day and hurry dwelling, my day begins … My diner is open from midnight to seven within the morning. They name it ‘Midnight Diner.’ Do I even have prospects? Greater than you’d anticipate.”
Some research confirmed that the izakaya within the present is wholly fictitious, but I needed to consider a spot with that type of meals and that type of feeling was actual. On a latest journey to Tokyo, I got down to discover one identical to it.
“An Excellent in Your Coronary heart”
I begin seeing parts of what I hoped to search out surprisingly rapidly. I instantly discover a postage-stamp-sized bar in my neighborhood the place individuals are pleasant and curious. At my first dinner out at an izakaya within the Nakano neighborhood, the meals is surprisingly good for an off-the-cuff spot: beneficiant and unfussy sashimi, fish collar, smashed cucumbers with sesame, seared mushrooms, and an Asahi Tremendous Dry or two. The busy, cheery waitstaff nonetheless takes the time to assist me navigate the menu.
Barely 24 hours into my journey, I meet restaurant reviewer Mackey Makimoto at Toranomon Yokocho, a multi-restaurant undertaking he has helped put collectively that is like a meals court docket in heaven. He is sporting a short-brimmed fedora and is speaking with a chef once I arrive with my fixer and translator, Mai Nomura. Over fried rooster, grilled sardines, fried oysters, and fried tofu, we bond over a love of Midnight Diner, however my first actual query for him is whether or not a spot like that exists.
