“Wafu-Italian Returns to DC || Tonari Reopening Saturday (Dec. 18)”

707 6th Street, NW courtesy Tonari

From a press release:

“Tonari, the Japanese-Italian restaurant credited with introducing Washington, D.C. to cross-cultural wafu pastas and pizza, is reopening Saturday, December 18, 2021.

When it debuted in February 2020, it secured immediate critical praise and garnered attention for both a dedication to the details and its sense of joy on the plate.

After pausing operations a mere six weeks after opening, Tonari is reopening with mostly new dishes and a five-course, pre-fixe menu, a natural progression of the restaurant to showcase the intertwining of Japanese and Italian cuisines. It will open a la carte service in the future.

Photo by Veronika Sabir-Idrissi

Wafu refers to Japanese style, and it reflects the idea of a certain cultural appreciation. It can describe varying art forms, like music, architecture, fashion and, of course, food. The Daikaya Group, long known for its exacting dedication to Japanese cuisine and sensibility, is just the right messenger to explore wafu pasta, which was first developed in Japan in the 1950s.

Tonari’s menu features pasta–made in Sapporo, Japan at the same factory as Daikaya Group’s signature ramen noodles–coated in a riff on XO sauce with bonito and Spam. There’s also a tagliatelle bolognese with nduja and Japan’s S&B brand curry. Risotto is spiked with shio-koji, stracchino, Parmesan, Asian pear and chinotto.

Katsuya Fukushima, one of the D.C.-area’s most celebrated chefs, who rose to fame growing Jose Andres’ restaurant empire, including the now Michelin-starred minbar, has led the kitchen’s creative journeys into turning Hokkaido-milled flour into chewy, pillowy and faintly sweet pan pizzas.

Wafu pizzas stay loyal to the original Tonari lineup, like the pepperoni pie with Japanese brick cheese and shoyu-pickled jalapenos, and another, the mentaiko, with a Kewpie corn puree.

Small plates include confit sunchokes with dill and orange; burrata surrounded by figs, chicory and an agrodolce with arare, Japanese rice crackers; and vinegar-poached beets with endives in a yuzu-oregano dressing over fonduta.

Desserts include a warm white-chocolate buckwheat (soba) porridge, vanilla bean panna cotta and chocolate budino. Drinks show off the Italian side of things with a curated selection of wines, negroni on tap and in various iterations, amari and beer.

The kitchen is run by chef de cuisine Nico Cezar, whose career path reveals prescience. Cezar studied Italian food under Nicholas Stefanelli at Bibianna and Michelin-starred Masseria. Before that, Cezar joined Daikaya Group, learning Japanese food under Fukushima as the chef de cuisine of the ramen shop and the izakaya, which is next door to Tonari. In Japanese, Tonari means “next door.”

Tonari is reservation only via purchasing tickets on Tock, and will open for select preview days through the end of the year. The opening schedule is: December 18, Christmas Eve (December 24), New Year’s Eve (December 31) and New Year’s Day (January 1). Regularly scheduled service on Friday and Saturday nights starts January 7, 2022.

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DETAILS
Tonari
707 6th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001; tonaridc.com

Ticketed Reservations Only via Tock
Preview Days: December 18, December 24, December 31 and January 1

Open: Starting in 2022, Fridays and Saturdays, 5-10 p.m.
$65 for five-course, pre-fixe (includes tax and tip)”