Cizuka Seki

WE ARE OPEN TONIGHT FROM 5-9PM. IF YOU ARE HUNGRY, WE WILL FEED YOU.

sid caesar RIP

i dont know much about chocolate or wine.... but for me, the darker the chocolate (e.g. 80% cocoa) the less sweet the wine can be. dry (and robust) reds with anything less that 70-75% and combined with sweet fruit makes my face do this: this: and then: personally, i've only tried ports with most truffles and bonbons and something like a brachetto for even sweeter milk chocolate desserts. but I've had *very* dark, buttery, caramelized, rich chocolates that stand up to a late-harvest Pinot, an Austrailian Shiraz, a Grenache, Grappa, and a late harvest Argentinian Malbec. voges haut has a bacon dark chocolate that i tried with the grenache and it was not too shabby. I particularly liked the grappa pairing tho since it also helped settle my stomach. i could also imagine a variety of whites working with chocolates that have savory and/or spicy profiles -- like curry, tumeric, ginger, chilis, etc. my pennies worth of a post.

their selection is minimal. i've heard good things about the grilled vegetable sandwich but i'm not keen on portobello mushrooms and that's so often a given in a grilled vegetable sandwich. their chicken salad has a nice kick of lemon zest. it's not my favorite sandwich place but i work in the neighborhood and would rather buy from cork than get a sandwich from taylor.

there's luke's lobster and cork market too.

Its about time someone appreciated my taste in music. Haha!

jensen has come out with another gin -- OLD TOM -- which i tried yesterday and it is DELICIOUS. not better than london dry but less citrus and sugar and more sweet herb.

happy new year!

i'd expect it to be multi-layered, but definitely dirty with a twist.

Real Japanese amberjack (BURI) is only available in the winter months. They're the big brother to yellowtail (HAMACHI) and a relative of kampachi and hiramasa. In Japan, this fish has different names based on its maturity and size. From small to large, the names change from Mojako --> Wakanago/Wakashi/Inada --> Hamachi --> Mejiro --> Buri. Names can also vary depending on the region so there are really about 10 other names for the same species. In English, there's just amberjack or yellowtail and no distinction based on size or origin. We got a lovely 10kg guy from Nagasaki Prefecture in this morning. I love it simmered in dashi with large slices of daikon radish (which is also best in winter) but when it's this fresh, it must be served as sashimi!! #sashimibreakfastformeeeee

i wouldn't overthink it too much. but i found that foods you can freeze (including lasagna) are helpful. at the end of the day though, any family who has a member battling cancer is going to be grateful for all the help they can get.

it's official! YOU LIKE US. you really, really like us!

and then, there's the new Neil LaBute movie coming soon: Some Velvet Morning

Nelson Mandela, South African Icon of Peaceful Resistance, Is Dead

i went last night with a friend and i thoroughly enjoyed my meal. i had been one other time but it was for my post-work shift drink and too late to order from the kitchen. This time, i arrived at 7pm and found plenty of seating and quiet at the benches in back. my friend ordered an indian pale ale of some kind, which i paid no heed to because i actively eschew hoppy beers. i got a lovely albarino to accompany our steamed rapa whelks with an old bay laced mayo and a dozen olde salt clams on the half-shell. my friend kept putting too much cocktail sauce on the clams and i almost got upset because they are so fresh and salty they barely needed anything at all. it was his first time eating raw clams so i let it go. the whelks were also great and i'd love to know where they're from....i was a little disappointed that they were so thoroughly cleaned up but i've already discussed my preference for a more "rustic" approach to gastropods elsewhere on this site. anyhoo, after the first round of food, we ordered the fish pie with pickled vegetables and a swordfish dish that was supposed to include sausage but my friend doesn't eat meat so the kitchen kindly left it off. i'll have to go back to get this with the sausage. the swordfish included some melty, mustardy sauerkraut and well, i can't recall other details because i was too busy devouring my portion of the fish pie. the pie was basically a tender ball of minced white fish and parsley and maybe scallops (?) completely wrapped in pastry dough and baked (not unlike the "starship" above but as a stand alone pie rather than a slice of pie). the side of pickles were cauliflower florets, decoratively carved button mushrooms, thin slices of carrots and red chilis, and jalepeno. i really appreciated the knife work put into these pickles. i'm not trying to sound snooty but it made an impression. they were a perfect accompaniment to the fairly rich pie. my friend is welsh so he was also very appreciative of a good fish pie. we stopped talking and ate in silence before we resumed catching up. in the meantime, some lovely person (me thinks chantal) decided to treat us with a third dish -- one that i had strongly considered ordering anyway -- that consisted of poached swordfish albacore tuna, seared squid, butter poached shrimp, and pickled mackerel all sitting atop pureed flageolet beans. i will probably order this next time because i love beans so much and everything was cooked perfectly. also, my friend accidentally ate all of the mackerel :'-( i would've considered trying something sweet but we had to rush to the black cat (i'm not a hipster; i just play one sometimes. #indenial). our total bill (not including the last dish) was $89 before tax and tip. not cheap but given the quality and consideration put into everything, i was happy and hope to return soon.

i really don't want to weigh in because i'm biased. i'm very fond of the team that opened Petworth Citizen and i want to defend them. i'm also wary of possible repercussions that any criticism of TS would solicit....I doubt that anyone from PC will weigh in or respond directly to their review.....so I'm trying to do it for them....even if i have to tread very lightly :-/ but here's just my two cents -- the primary miscalculation on PC's part was to highlight (albeit not overly) any association with cityzen and firefly. from my perspective, this raised some serious expectations that were either unintentionally or intentionally not met. i also dined at PC with some seed that this could be a really great dining experience but the experience fell short. if i hadn't had any idea of makoto or the GM's background, i probably would've been relatively satisfied. i am, however, more than happy to give them the benefit that they are aware of any weaknesses and are serious about fixing them. i imagine that TS also went in expecting much, much, much more than he got. ALL THIS SAID, it's frustrating to me as another small business owner that is trying to create a unique and independently-run dining experience in DC to see a damning review based on one a few visits so shortly after they open. Small businesses are not going to have all of their systems running flawlessly from day one....or day 50 or that matter. Restaurants are so hard and so exhausting and there are service issues and management issues and food issues and training issues every day and it could take a place an entire year before these issues are resolved. If the standard is set against big brand, big name "blah blah Group" owned restaurants where managers are paid $$$ and a million front of house and back of house staff are hired from day one and all systems have been established by the corporate home office, then DC will never develop a dynamic mix of locally-owned restaurants and the dining scene will be relegated to celebrity chefs and nationally-recognized corporate restauranteurs. I have nothing against the big names that decide to set up shop in DC. But personally, I believe an exciting restaurant city is one that provides opportunity for ANYONE to set up shop and right now, DC does not create these opportunities easily. A review like that could potentially ruin a business. I doubt that Tom is unaware of the affect his opinion has and it would be tragic if his "first bite" causes serious damage. There are questions about whether or not Petworth Citizen should've been reviewed in the first place. I don't see why it shouldn't. I'm just guessing but ultimately, I would assume that Makoto wants to be taken very seriously as a chef with a great restaurant and PC should be his testing ground to do it. (Also, who TS chooses to review is obviously his prerogative. I dont think he should limit his reviews to just fine dining or to big-name operations or just full service restaurants. All in all, it's pretty awesome that he bothered to come in. I didn't think he'd give Izakaya Seki the time of day because we don't fit his usual dining profile and we didn't do any publicity. But he did and has been very kind in his reviews......) But I digress! Mainly, what i'd hate to see is that this review does damage to the long term viability of this place, which only adds value to the Petworth neighborhood and encourages more entrepreneurs to consider starting up there. Everyone knows that you need a few businesses to be the guinea pigs in any up-and-coming neighborhood without a strong commercial hub. Petworth Citizen is one of these guinea pigs and without them the neighborhood and DC in general is all the poorer.

From: Pierce This interesting reviewer has actually reviewed us twice. The first time he dined with us, he was quite happy with the experience and gave us 4 stars. Unfortunately, some of his facts were wildly incorrect: it might just be my sense of aesthetic but I would not describe our upstairs dining room as "semi-industrial and Ikea-laden" I would also not describe the first floor counter seating as a "sake bar" It's nice that he think our "house-made food is delicious" but would be incorrect to think that it's a "mother-daughter" pair behind it....my mother lives in St. Louis. It's also nice that he was happy with the "sweet older lady" who served him -- who may or may not have been me -- except that all of our servers are in their 30s or younger and I'm not sure I've ever comped a free beer just because we ran out of a dish or two during the course of the night.....is 30 so old to be called "older"? THIS is the nice review. More recently, Pierce had a very unhappy experience with us that merited a 1-star update because apparently, we turned him away at the door and suggested that he go to Daikaya instead. It sounds like he came on our one-year, all you can eat tuna night when I was acting as hostess all night.....it's true that we had an excessively long wait for three days straight. We weren't expecting so many tuna sashimi fiends! But I'm sure that we managed to seat every single person that came through our door. And as much as I appreciate Daikaya and what they do, I am *pretty sure* I would never turn away a customer and suggest that they try another restaurant. I LIKE customers. I want their patronage. Maybe I'll ask Daikaya to pay me a finder's fee for new customers???? I am admittedly "too cool for school" and have been told by several people that I'm an "aging hipster" :-( "Overgrown aging hipster child" might also be accurate :-/ especially if i'm passive-aggressively retaliating by re-posting this review.

THANK YOU for your feedback. *thank you all for your feedback* When it comes to asking guests to move, I make a call on a case-by-case basis. There have been plenty of times when I've asked guests to move over one seat and 90% of the time, they are understanding. (We've even had to ask guests to move from the 2nd floor to the counter because of a seating mistake we made and in that case, it was very natural and obvious to treat the party to something because WE f'ed up.) If the diners are particularly conscientious, they think to do this themselves. In this particular case, for various reasons, I chose to not ask the diners to move over. They might've been accommodating but based on the moment, it just didn't seem worth it. All this said, most of our diners are AWESOME....which is why I get unduly ruffled when they aren't. It's lack of experience and *coolness* on my part, I guess. In any case, I'm quite relieved to hear that this might be an incident I should not take to heart and just recognize as a learning experience for me and my staff.

QUESTION: I received a direct email from a very unhappy person this morning. Here's the background: 1) we don't take reservations for parties of less than 5; 2) we were CRAZY busy from about 5:30 onward, and the first nine diners sat at the counter so the bar was full from the moment we opened. We had plenty of seating upstairs until about 7:30 pm when some reservations arrived and we quickly filled up there too; 3) if there's a wait, we try out best to estimate the wait time but it is STRICTLY an *estimate*. if there is a wait of 30 minutes or more, we encourage patrons to grab a drink nearby and we call them when their table is ready. we have to do this because there is no waiting area at the restaurant. we also encourage patrons not to call or come back before we call them BECAUSE IT MEANS THERE IS NO TABLE AVAILABLE YET. and showing up and calling does not seat you any faster (although calling can give more current information about the wait, to help you plan - this is fine!). also hovering over a table does not get you seated any sooner either. 4) i am always available on the floor as the GM to discuss any concerns or frustrations with the food or service. so, with all that said, here's the email: Seki-san, I am writing to express my very deep and sincere disappointment at the extremely inconsiderate treatment we received last night at your restaurant. It was not our first visit and we all knew before arriving that the downstairs seating is very limited [there were about 10 seats available on the 2nd floor when these three patrons arrived but they insisted on waiting for counter seats -- where we only have 11 seats and 9 or them were taken.] However, after waiting futilely for over an hour and a half, needless to say we gave up. [this party left to get a drink. we called them to provide an update as soon as we realized that the initial estimated wait time was incorrect. we offered table seating again, which they refused. again. the point of us calling with an update was to give them the option of continuing to wait or to change their plans. we did not call them to tell them their table was ready but they returned anyway and hovered over diners at the counter]. Again, we understand perfectly well that there are only a small number of spaces at the counter downstairs. However, for at least 30 minutes of the time while we were standing in the front waiting patiently, there actually were 3 spaces free at the counter -- the only problem was that those seats were separated by a party of 3 men who sat at the corner and showed no signs of leaving. I don't think it would have been too much for the hostess (who frankly was utterly incompetent) to ask if they might move over one seat to allow the 3 of us to take the open spaces. [this is partially true. we could've made people move down in order to create three seats in a row -- however, all diners were well into the middle of their meals and i thought it would be disruptive to ask a bunch of parties to move over.] Instead, the hostess ignored us completely and seated a couple who arrived well after we had already been standing there for 45 minutes. Then, when the lone woman at the left end of the counter departed, the hostess was able to immediately seat another lucky couple who had just arrived. During the entire time we stood there waiting, we were only offered 2 (!) small glasses of water -- which honestly tasted as though the glasses had not been properly cleaned. Maybe sometime around the 45-minute mark, I believe after the first "lucky couple" had been seated, one of the waitresses offered to take drink orders for us. It would have been more appropriate if she had instead offered us a round of drinks on the house for our patience. [this is my main question for you -- if you want to be sat at a particular table and refuse all other available options and it turns out that you have to wait for longer than we estimate or than you would like, do we owe you free drinks???] Or if you might have offered us some small snack -- edamame or something -- while we stood there like idiots. [from my perspective, if it's your choice to be a passive-aggressive idiot, should i offer you free food in the name of good service?] Though I know you were busy preparing food for your customers, there is no way you could have missed the 3 of us standing there waiting in vain to be seated. Shame on you, Seki-san. [honestly, i know i should write this complaint off as baseless based on this line alone....anyone who expects for the chef to handle front of the house matters in the midst of our peak dinner hours is completely off-base. i dont know why this guy addressed his email to my dad instead of to me, the GM.] I must say that the greatest insult of all came after we had left for the second and final time, when your completely useless hostess decided to call us once again to let us know that the party of 3 men were paying their bill. Did she honestly expect that we would rush back? [this was actually me calling. it was not to be insulting but i figured they like to know that we did finally have seats available. i wasn't bitchy or catty. i can, however, understand how it came across that way...] By this point, it was nearly 2 hours after we first arrived at your restaurant, and no doubt half of the menu offerings were already gone. Although I am copying my friend on this e-mail message, I can only speak for myself in saying that you have lost me as a customer. We were treated like utter garbage by your hostess, and also by you. As the owner of the restaurant, it is your responsibility to treat customers with respect, which was nowhere in evidence last night. And a look through some of the reviews that you have received on Yelp, clearly we were not the first customers to feel that they were treated poorly by the service staff there. Frankly, you should all be ashamed of yourselves, and you in particular Seki-san need to re-evaluate the way you and your staff treat customers. In disgust, [Name Withheld] SO, I would genuinely welcome your feedback. my main question is highlighted above....this is really the first direct complaint i've encountered regarding our service. I'm very new in my capacity as GM so I have A LOT to learn and obviously want to implement best practices. i'm more than happy to offer complimentary drinks or food if we make a mistake. but i'm not sure how i feel about doling out free food or drinks just because a patron is unhappy for reasons beyond our control....what do you think??? or should i have asked diners to move during the middle of their meal to create three seats even while a long list of diners were in line?

Correction -- There was a side of sea salt and half a kabosu. and yes, the whole point of the packet is for you to enjoy the matsutake smell before digging in.

FYI -- We have BELON oysters from Maine on the half shell tonight and I believe we'll have them tomorrow night as well. They're very beautiful -- almost shaped like a scallop shell. They taste metallic and tannic and quite unlike any oyster I've ever had; they're also rare. We serve them like we do with our other oysters -- yuzu juice and a little momiji oroshi. $3/oyster, in this particular case.

While I agree that escargot may only be available from distributors as pre-cleaned then frozen or canned, I disagree that this is the case for all gastropods....for example, we acquired two different types of whelks in the past month that were flash frozen but not cleaned and still in their shell -- operculum and innards in tact -- and we prepare them by braising them in a seasoned liquid and serve them WHOLE, including the inner systems (with a toothpick to be cork screwed out of the shell). Same could be said for sazae or larger snails we have access to as well as abalone and sea slugs (namako). I also recently had snails in coconut milk at Rice Paper that were still in shell. Their kitchen conveniently lopped the very top of the shell off so you could suck out the meat from the top (vs twisting it out from the foot). I doubt these arrived pre-cleaned, separated, and all inner systems and foot restuffed at the restaurant.

For what it's worth, I buy my knives here, located in the Kappabashi district in Tokyo: Kamata Kappabashi and it looks like their website can be translated into English so there might be information on how to reach them directly to inquire about specific knives and options. It's a lovely store and they are SUPER friendly. Korin is helpful to check out the sizes and styles but personally, i think they're wildly overpriced. Another option is to reach out to the the big japanese import exporters in the area.

@jasonc: you forgot the midgets. and i believe it's pronounced KAHHHHHPNOOUSSS (in a deep voice)