When Daisuke Hiramatsu opened lunchtime favourite Hifumiya in 2018, he introduced Perth eaters to the pleasures of freshly made udon, Japan’s supple and versatile wheat noodle.
This November, Hiramatsu throws open the doors to Ginza Nana Alley, a dining precinct that will house five different food and drink establishments on Murray Street, including a couple new to Perth. Just as Hifumiya broke new ground for our Japanese food scene, Ginza Nana Alley looks set to be equally influential, as Hiramatsu and co take a deep-dive into yokocho: Japan’s warren-like alleyways populated by intimate, singular bars and restaurants.
“Hifumiya and Jigoro were about trying to show people real Japanese food culture, including the design,” says Hiramatsu who believes Ginza Nana Alley is Australia’s first dedicated yokocho venue. “I want this to be a celebration of alleyway culture and eating.”
Daisuke Hiramatsu.Credit: Max Veenhuyzen
Ginza Nana Alley might be indoors, yet the 70-person space hums with laneway energy. If you’ve ever spent an evening in Shinjuku’s Golden Gai or Sakaemachi arcade in Okinawa’s Naha, the look and feel should be instantly familiar. Colourful signs and noren and rope curtains are everywhere. Stools pressed up close against counters offer guests front-row seats of chefs chopping, cooking and serving. Tightly packed tables have been arranged with zero consideration for social distancing. Japanese vending machines will dispense both cold and hot beverages. The food offering, meanwhile, covers the entire length of Japan’s diverse food pyramid.
The fanciest of the five spaces is Ginza Midai, a demure 12-seat kappo (“counter seating”) restaurant with a focus on Japanese hotpot cooking known as oden. Think snapper simmered in a rich soy and dashi broth; soba dressed with dried herring roe; and pressed skipjack sushi grilled over charcoal. Fittingly, head chef Midai Hatakeyama spent a decade at Ginza Oden Ore-no Dashi, a specialist oden restaurant located in Ginza’s 7-chome district, the Tokyo neighbourhood that the precinct is named for (“nana” is Japanese for seven). In addition to a strong cooking pedigree, Hatekeyama is also a sake fiend and has helped stock Ginza Midai’s fridges with hard-to-find sakes designed to play nicely with his cooking.
Fellow yakitori devotees – and anyone that likes meat-on-sticks – will be thrilled to know Ginza Nana Alley will also house Yakitori Washokudo, a dedicated chicken skewer restaurant that sees chef Naoyuki Suzuki swap the sushi counter and polish of Northbridge’s James Parker for a fast-moving space where smoke and charcoal-grilled chicken rule. Menu sightings of bonjiri (“the parson’s nose”), heart, gizzard and other cuts of chicken not usually served at Perth yakitori restaurants is deeply encouraging.
Ginza Nana Alley opens in November. Credit: Max Veenhuyzen
The opening of Onomichi Ramen Mitsuya, meanwhile, will signal the arrival of onomichi ramen to P-Town. Named after the port city of Onomichi in Hiroshima – the neighbouring prefecture west of Okayama where Hiramatsu was born – onomichi ramen features straight egg noodles served in a blend of chicken and seafood stocks enriched with pork fat. Noodle hunters, start your engines.
The two remaining spaces showcase foreign influence on Japanese food. Tonkatsu Kubota is a washoku (western-style Japanese cooking) restaurant serving tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets), Japanese hamburger patties and other soul food favourites dressed in a French-influenced demi-glace sauce. Finally there’s Monkey & Bird, a split-personality space that operates as a kissaten (Japanese cafe) by day serving coffee alongside purin (the katakana spelling of “pudding” aka Japanese creme caramel) and feathery castella sponge cake before morphing into a snack bar at night fuelled by whisky and cocktails.
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