Tojo Style

Walking down West Broadway last night in Vancouver, Amanda explained, "the difference between this Toys R Us and the ones we've seen before is that this one is in Canada". So true, so true.

It seems fitting that she said it here, on our last stop of the trip, because it's very connected to the conversation we had on the way out of Phoenix (our first stop) about exurban sprawl. The conversation here seems to be similar, but instead of American corporate powers spreading like wildfire across the frontier of the Arizona desert, they've crossed the border, dotting the supposedly foreign Canadian landscape like punctuation. 7 Eleven! Wendys? and A&W: (Amanda said "We don't even have an A&W in Brooklyn!")




The night before we took our Amtrak bus (!) trip out of Seattle, we had one more fine meal with Amanda's friend Danielle and her boyfriend Eddie. Danielle moved to Seattle from New York two years ago to open her fabulous Curtsy Bella store near the University. It was a treat to visit her shop, although I was dizzy from all the inventory.





Passport control was surprisingly slow. We wondered, as we waited at the back of a long and seemingly unmoving line, what the Canadian immigration officers could possibly be asking people. When it was our turn, the agent asked us how we knew one another. Amanda and I looked at each other and started laughing. I wanted to say, "it was late on a Friday night about five years ago in Madison. We were in a Madonna cover band together. Actually we had met years earlier because she worked at Cafe Montmartre and I played there a lot..." Instead I simply said we were engaged. The border woman was sweet about it and chatted casually with us about our plans in Vancouver. Of course, I thought, border patrol is slow in Canada because the people are so nice and talkative.

We arrived in overcast Vancouver around 3:30 and after checking in to the cute hotel Le Soleil, we took a little walk around the downtown area. Vancouver at first glance (at least on a cloudy Tuesday) is architecturally consistent with itself. The buildings all have a common design. Steel and glass, rounded edges, curved corners, floor to ceiling windows. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it reminds us of China, and not just because of the large Asian population.



The city also seems to be undergoing massive development. Cranes survey the city like industrial grazing giraffes.



One of the best things about knowing restaurant people is that they can guide you through the maze of establishments in a city to the right places. Our Seattle contacts sent us packing to Vancouver with a list of places not to be missed. (We realized, for better or for worse, that they are the same places visited by Anthony Bourdain on the Vancouver episode of No Reservations earlier this year.) The first place on our list, and the only place we made a reservation: Tojos Omakase.

Tojo has been a fixture on the Vancouver food scene since the 70s. Last year he moved his restaurant into a new, 6000 square foot space to accommodate all his international customers. They say the best way to eat at his restaurant is to sit at the sushi bar on a night when he is working and request Omakase (which means "entrust", as in "I entrust you with my evening"). There is no menu. Only Tojo. And his attentive, charming assistants.

We requested two seats at the bar and we got them. Right in front of Tojo. He asked us where we were from. We said New York. He asked us if we have open minds. We said yes. The food started coming. All told, I think we had eleven courses. Nothing was huge, but we were certainly full. Every course had fresh fish. Tojo served us each course and explained the dishes, sort of. ("West coast Sashimi salad Tojo style! Local sable fish Tojo style!")

Ask Tojo if his business improved after being featured on television, and he produces a two page resume of his accomplishments in chronological order. This was my favorite: "August 1989, Tojo is the inventor of the California roll." I'm not saying it's not true. I'm not sure. I need to do some research. But I think it gives you an idea of where Tojo's head is.



To our right was a young couple named Rachel and Mitchell. They turned out to be excellent neighbors because she works for Tourism Vancouver and was extremely knowledgeable about the city. To our left, a couple from California, Circe and Mateo, on vacation. She is a hotel proprietor and he a chef in Healdsburg, where Amanda and I stopped for wine tasting with the Vegas boys last week. If only we had known Circe and Mateo then!



Both couples were a lot of fun to share the evening with, although none picked up the tab like Mike in Portland. That was a shame, since Tojo style Omakase comes with a high price tag.

Walking home across the Granville bridge, full of fish and shochu, Amanda said, "I think I like Vancouver better at night." I know what she means. It was beautiful. Our wallets belonged to Tojo, but for those few minutes the bridge and the city beyond it seemed to belong to us.