Kaiseki menus, Detroit-style pizza, and a West African chef’s pop-up

This week on Menu Talk, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, zero in on Japanese tasting menus and a trendy pizza style.

Bret paid a visit to Hakubai in the Kitano Hotel, a restaurant known for its kaiseki menu. Kaiseki is a Japanese tasting menu similar to omakase, but it’s more specifically focused on pristine, seasonal ingredients. Hakubai’s 11-course menu was paired with sake and the amuse-bouche stood out as one of Bret’s favorite parts. It was a very tender and succulent squid with a Japanese-style vinaigrette and caviar on top—another example underscoring caviar as the “it” ingredient this year.

Pat’s pizza experience was a bit more down market but very tasty. She had dinner at Emmy Squared, a Detroit-style sit-down pizza restaurant that earned a spot on Restaurant Business’ Future 50 ranking of emerging chains this year. Detroit pizza is a rectangular pie that’s baked in a deep metal pan so that every slice comes out with a very crispy edge. It originated in Detroit and may have some link to the auto industry but it’s now trending outside of that city — as proven by Emmy Squared, which is expanding on the East Coast. Pat had the MVP pizza topped with vodka sauce, pesto, burrata and Calabrian chilies and as a New Yorker, she may just become a Detroit pizza fan.

We talked about Resident before, a company that operates pop-ups in event spaces in condos, lofts and the like. Bret recently attended a dinner in Brooklyn cooked by Adjiatu Jalloh (a.k.a. Chef Adji), a West African grill cook who works on the line at the steakhouse Cut by Wolfgang Puck. But on her day off she gets to try out her own style of African fusion cuisine. Resident provides a way for chefs to test out menu ideas or simply share their passion for cooking in a less stressful environment than a restaurant during the dinner rush.

Food halls have traditionally been another lower-risk way to test out a concept or menu, but they have evolved a bit since the pandemic. Pat shared her interview with food hall veteran Akhtar Nawab, who has opened and operated several in the last few years. His company tends to stick to smaller cities, such as Omaha, Charlotte, N.C., and metro-Minneapolis rather than New York, Chicago, and L.A.

Chef Nawab talks about the importance of having a good mix of cuisines. And the concepts don’t all have to be fast-casual. A live-fire Brazilian-style full-service steak concept that’s clearly higher-end is doing very well in one of his newer food halls. Event spaces are also key to success; a place to host planned activities that turn food halls into destinations for more than eating and drinking.

Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.