every night In one of the darkest, most depressing depths of the pandemic, a TV show that I watched over and over again helped me get through it. midnight meala series on Netflix Set in a Tokyo restaurant, it became a healing balm and reminder of the warmth of being around people.
At this izakaya the chef, called only “master”, cooks surrounded by a service counter on three sides, at which loyal regulars sit, basking in each other's company. was probably supposed to be the weird cousin of the 1980s NBC sitcom to encourageEach episode tells a sweet, sad, or sometimes heartbreaking story. The Master, a man of few words with a mysterious scar on his face, is like their conscience and confidant, helping them understand the world. The characters are kind, quirky, and loyal.
As a taxi glides dreamily through a Shinjuku neighborhood in the opening credits, the master gives a little voice-over: “When people finish their day and go home early, my day begins… my restaurant at midnight. Open till seven in the morning. Do I have more customers than you expect?
A little research confirmed that the izakaya in the show is completely fictional, yet I wanted to believe a place with that kind of food and that kind of feeling was real. On a recent trip to Tokyo, I set out to find just such a thing.
“An Ideal in Your Heart”
I start to see the elements I expected to find coming together surprisingly quickly. I immediately found a postage stamp-sized bar in my neighborhood where the people are friendly and curious. At my first dinner at an izakaya in the Nakano neighborhood, the food was surprisingly good for a casual place: generous and plain sashimi, fish collars, smothered cucumbers with sesame seeds, roasted mushrooms, and an Asahi super dry or two. The busy, cheerful waitstaff still took the time to help me navigate the menu.
Barely 24 hours into my trip, I met restaurant critic Mackey Makimoto But Toranomon YokochoA multi-restaurant project that he has helped design is like a food court in heaven. When I arrive with my fixer and translator, Mai Nomura, he's wearing a short-brimmed fedora and talking to the chef. With fried chicken, grilled sardines, fried oysters and fried tofu, we bond over love midnight mealBut my first real question to him is whether such a place exists.