Los Gatos sushi restaurant offers peace and formality
By Suzanne Cristallo
Formal Japanese dining has come to Los Gatos. Sushi Aoyama opened quietly three weeks ago in what once was Juicy Burger on N. Santa Cruz Avenue. For casual dining, sushi fans may order their favorite dishes at a bar attended by two sushi chefs who call out in Japanese a welcome to each entering guest.
Others, wanting a more traditional and formal meal, may dine in an enclosed part of the restaurant devoted to a tatani (floor). There, up to eight diners sit on plump pillows arranged on a raised floor covered with reed mats at a table no more than 1 1/2 feet off the floor.
The transformation from burger place to serene Asian sanctuary is dramatic. A screened entry shields diners from a view of the street. Shoji screens mask the windows. Walls are painted a cool green and bordered with dark-stained wood trim. More than 40 small halogen lights, strung on wires overhead, illuminate each table.
"I did it," says owner Young Kim proudly, gesturing to the decor. "I think it's OK." Kim chose the paint color, did all of the cabinetry and trim himself, and installed and wired the lights. He also set up the sound system, which often plays music by his favorite artist, Diana Krall. The music alone is enough to clue in locals who indulge themselves regularly in Japanese food. It's the same music played in Yokohama, the Japanese restaurant just down the street, next to the Los Gatos Cafe. Kim, a devoted jazz fan, owns both places. He started Yokohama just two years ago.
Does that mean he's in competition with himself?
"This is more formal dining. It is more gentle," he explains. "The other is more casual and noisy." He feels that each restaurant serves a particular clientele and mood.
"People don't see me at Yokohama lately and ask where I've been," he relates. "I tell them about this new and different taste." While he divides his time between the two places, his wife, Soon, is devoting her days to waiting tables at Aoyama.
Entrees are in the $15-$20 range and include salad, miso (bean) soup and tempura. One delectable-sounding entree is halibut steak served in a special sauce, accompanied by steamed rice seasoned with sesame seeds, soy and "other special things."
Tataki, or ahi tuna, baked on the outside but raw inside, is favored even by diners who say they don't like raw fish. It may be nicely balanced with a dessert of banana tempura.
Soon and Young met in school and married in their birth city of Seoul, Korea. From 1910 until World War II, the big city was occupied by the Japanese, much of whose cooking style and culture was adapted by the Korean people. Young, a sushi lover, fell naturally into running a restaurant and owned his own place in Seoul before coming to the United States in 1981. He brought with him the desire to have another restaurant here but initially went to work in maintenance for a semiconductor company.
"First I had to understand the system and get money," he recalls. Within a few years, he owned a restaurant in Capitola, which he has just sold. "Right now, my dreams have come true," he says, a hint of emotion in his voice. "I have two restaurants in Los Gatos!"
But his dreams go on. "I want to have one in Berkeley--a more casual, loud sushi bar for Cal students," he says with a grin.
Sushi Aoyama, 217-A N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos, is open daily for lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., and dinner, 5-10 p.m. (later on weekends as needed). For more information, call 408.395.0560.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
