 Ms. YUKI MINAKAWA Born in Brazil. She has been a sake bartender for two years at the Japanese restaurant Masa in New York, a bartender for the En Japanese brasserie for one year, and has been working as a food and beverage director for kajitsu since November 2016. Work place: kajitsu |
Ms. Minagawa’s place of work, “Kajitsu,” opened in East Village in New York in 2009, and was renewed in 2013 by moving to Midtown East, a center where modern office buildings and historic buildings coexist.
While there are many Japanese companies and many Japanese restaurants, it is gaining popularity due to its unique vegetarian cuisine style. The parent company is Fuka, a store specializing in raw fu that was founded in the late Edo period in Kyoto. We wholesale raw fu to a restaurant in Kyoto, and also run a Japanese sweets shop famous for “Fuka Manju”.
The store is divided into two floors, Kokage on the first floor is a casual izakaya style with soba, udon, rice bowls at lunch time, and one dish and sake dishes at night, and Kajitsu on the second floor is a high-class vegetarian dish. Store. The name of the store is Kahi, which means we want you to have a good time. The monotone and simple atmosphere of “Zen Style” calms the customer’s mind.
Also, since the number of seats is small compared to the floor space, you can relax comfortably, and you often hear the warmth of the trees on the tables and counters saying, “It’s like being in Japan.”
“Currently, there are 24 staff members working, but we value daily accumulation by watching the work situation every week, changing positions, and giving specific advice on the work content,” says Ms. Minagawa.
The menu changes monthly, with a basic course of 95 USD that incorporates seasonal vegetables and raw fu, and a chef’s entrustment of 125 USD. The latter is popular, with the same eight dishes as the basic course, plus other dishes.
The customer base is wide, ranging from men and women in their late 20s to 70s, and since it is a vegetarian dish, many vegetarians also visit. Sake is very popular for pairing and accounts for more than 75% of total beverage sales.
We ask our customers what they usually drink, propose something close to it, and then offer the next pairing based on their impressions. If you are new to sake, we often recommend Niigata sake. Many of our regular customers are adventurous, and we are trying to create a lineup that meets their expectations.
“In order to have a wonderful time, what I value most is not only the characteristics of the aroma and taste of sake, but also the characteristics of the place of origin and the brewery, asking for taste and proposing the best sake possible. Is to do “
Ms. Minagawa said that he received offers from multiple stores, including Masa, the only Michelin 3-star Japanese restaurant in New York City, by acquiring an Sommelier of Sake (International kikisake-shi). It seems that the immediate goal is to have more people drink sake and recognize its splendor, and at the same time, to develop new customers.
Address:12 5E 39th Street, New York, NY 10016 USA
Tel:+212 228-4873
https://www.kajitsunyc.com
Business Hours: Kajitsu 17: 30-21: 00 Kokage 11: 45-13: 45/17 30: 00-22: 00
Number of seats: Kajitsu 34 seats Kokage 21 seats
(as of September 2017)