As part of Peninsula Restaurant Week, Embarcadero Media’s Peninsula Foodist has asked participating chefs and restaurant owners to share their stories about what the past year has been like for them and where they see the industry headed. This week’s Q&A features Steven Yen, owner of Bushido Izakaya Restaurant at 156 Castro St., Mountain View. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me a little bit about your restaurant. I understand you’ve been in business more than 10 years now.
It’s been a little over 11 years. I try not to count this past year as a year, just with everything that’s gone on. Last year was just survival.
We’re a Japanese izakaya-style restaurant. Izakaya is like tapas. In Japan, izakayas are essentially Japanese drinking houses, so a lot of people — many of whom live in small apartments in Japan — will go to izakayas after work and drink over long periods of time, like, three or four hours, and they just drink and eat tapas, small plates, and share. So that’s the general idea of an izakaya. In America, it’s a little different — we’re more of just a dinner restaurant, but that’s where the basis of the idea came from.
Tell me about the course of this year — how many times did you close and reopen?
I want to say we closed three separate times. The first time was when the pandemic started — that time we closed for almost three months. That was a bit of a crazy time, obviously. They first said it was supposed to be two weeks, right? So we were expecting to reopen, but the pandemic kept getting worse. Obviously — at the end of the day, the health and safety of our community always comes first, as does the health and safety of my family. We closed again this winter, too. It’s honestly hard for me to recollect exactly, but we just followed the rules. If they said serve to-go only, then we did to-go food only. We did close during the holidays — we did a 10-day closure. We were allowed to stay open for to-go orders only, but cases were surging, so we just closed.
And does this latest reopening feel like it’ll be permanent?
I sure hope so. We’re going full speed ahead with hiring and everything as if we are going to continue to be open.
Tell me about the biggest challenges you’d say you’ve faced as a restaurant owner during lockdowns.
Obviously making rent and paying the bills is the hardest thing when there’s no income, right? But it was one of those things where it was always about weighing the health and safety of your family versus paying the bills. And it sucked that it had to be that choice. That was the toughest part.
Are there moments or experiences this year you’ve drawn upon to keep you going?
Oh, 100%. I’ve had regular customers who have come to Bushido ever since we opened. The only thing I would ever ask the regulars to do is just order takeout from us once in a while. That’s all I was really expecting, best-case scenario, but a lot of them were absolutely amazing. Some of them gave us a decent amount of money and said, ‘Give this to your employees, take care of them.’ I was absolutely floored. Times like these can sometimes bring out the worst in people, but oftentimes it brings out the best in them, too.
Has the pandemic forced any kind of innovation or revelation in the restaurant space you’re excited about?
My restaurant is on Castro Street, and they actually closed the street to through traffic. So essentially we’re all able to put tables on the street. It’s actually really cool. It turns Castro into a walking street. And obviously additional seating is great, but it’s just a great environment. Hopefully, once the pandemic starts winding down, it’ll be even more of a (pedestrian) destination.
What should diners expect from Bushido during Peninsula Restaurant Week?
I have a new chef, so I’m leaving it up to him to create the menu. He’s actually worked at a lot of Michelin-star restaurants; he’s worked at restaurants that are both Japanese and Korean.
Normally for these things you do some new dishes and some familiar. Because I have a new chef, though, I might just do all new dishes and get customer feedback.
Anything else customers should know about supporting local restaurants during Restaurant Week?
I think (supporting local restaurants) is the most important thing. Of course, we want everybody to do it safely, but I think we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
NOTE TO DESIGNER INFO BOX to run at top or center of main story:
New Peninsula Restaurant Week launches May 14
That restaurants have been hit particularly hard by pandemic-prompted economic fallout is no longer exactly breaking news. Nearly 1 in 6 restaurants nationwide — about 100,000 restaurants — have closed either permanently or long term since March 2020, according to the National Restaurant Association. The Peninsula itself has had to say goodbye to some greats, including Mayfield Bakery & Cafe, Ann’s Coffee Shop and Dan Gordon’s.
In an effort to provide diners more opportunities to support local restaurants as the Peninsula slowly reopens, Embarcadero Media’s Peninsula Foodist is teaming up with Facebook to launch Peninsula Restaurant Week. From May 14-22, restaurants of all stripes along the Peninsula will offer prix fixe deals and other menu specials available for dine-in, delivery or curbside pickup as part of the new dining event.
For more information about Peninsula Restaurant Week, go to peninsularestaurantweek.com.
Email Writer Sarah Klearman at peninsulafoodist@embarcaderopublishing.com.
