By Keiko Fukuda
Palos Verdes is a residential area in the suburbs where you find many ethnic groups including Japanese. Compared to its west side which faces the Pacific Ocean, the east side, looking down the harbor of Los Angeles, has a lot of commercial buildings including a shopping mall. On Western Avenue, which runs through the middle of the area, there is a Japanese restaurant that has been running since its opening in 1988 at the same location. It is “Tashiro”.
The owner/chef, Yoshinori Tashiro, is from Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture. He obtained a Japanese cook license in 1975, and 4 years later, was head-hunted, and came to Los Angeles. He worked at a trademark restaurant in Little Tokyo called “Yagura Ichiban”. After working there for 8 years, he became independent and fully prepared, and decided to open his own restaurant in Palos Verdes. He said, “I picked the location because the view from the hill, looking down to the harbor, reminds me of Honmoku, Yokohama”. The view of San Pedro below at night also made him nostalgic.
“It was hard at the beginning. It was 2 and a half years later when the operation finally started to get going. One good thing about the location was the fact that many Italians and Croatians live nearby. They have the habit of eating a lot of seafood from the Adriatic Sea, and can easily accept octopuses, sea urchins, and blueback fish such as mackerels and sardines. They must have been eating that kind of seafood since their childhood.
Consequently, the Italians and Croatians who were working at the harbor area became the regular customers. In addition, Japanese business people who worked for Japanese American companies in the Torrance area, and their families started to account for a certain portion of their clientele. Except the first 2 and a half hard years, Tashiro had been running smoothly. However, Mr. Tashiro says, that the number of sales started to decline about a year and a half ago when Toyota North America, who used to have the headquarters in Torrance, moved to Texas.
“The families of those Japanese business people often came on Sunday nights.
Many of them definitely went away. Because of the changes in clientele, we are getting less of certain kinds of fish such as seabreams that used to sell a lot. The kind of fish we buy has changed. Even so, dinner time is still pretty busy now with mostly American customers. They have 3 rotations in both the dining space and the sushi counter.
I asked Mr. Tashiro, who has been continuously running the restaurant for the last 30 years, what his policy is as a sushi chef. He said, “When I first came to the States, I had a kind of a firm principle about how sushi should be like. However, seeing a customer putting sweet sauce for broiled eel on the highest-quality fatty tuna, looking quite satisfied and enjoying it right in front of me, made me think about the way of my thinking.
As time passed by, my thinking has changed. Now I think anything is all right as long as the customer truly enjoys the way of his/her own tasting. Despite all that, I am still very particular about the freshness of the sushi ingredients.”
He showed me a photograph, which shows sushi and sashimi in a wooden box. He explained, “This is the photo of a bento box ordered by a customer who was going to the Hollywood Bowl. The customer didn’t care how much it would cost, but wanted the best possible assortment of foods.” The Hollywood Bowl is a concert venue under the night sky during summer, like Central Park in New York.
The audience brings their own drinks and food to the venue, and enjoy music individually. The customer must have wanted to taste his best favorite foods at the Hollywood Bowl.
“Tashiro” has been loved by many people. It celebrated its 30th anniversary in June. “I intend to keep working at the restaurant as long as my health permits,” says Mr. Tashiro who will soon be turning 70 years old. “I am thinking about stopping to offer straws in the restaurant. I saw a video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck in its nose. I felt so bad,” he said, showing another side of him as a surfer. I felt that the sweet side of him could be one of the reasons
that attract many customers to his restaurant.
客層を変えながらも30周年迎えた寿司屋
パロスバーデスは日本人も多く暮らす郊外の住宅地だ。太平洋に面した西側に比べ、ロサンゼルスの港を見下ろす東側のエリアにはショッピングモールなどの商業施設が多い。その中心街とも言えるウエスターン・アベニュー沿いに1988 年にオープンしてから、同じ場所で今も営業を続けているのが日本食の店、Tashiro。
オーナーシェフの田代良則さんは神奈川県の出身。1975 年、日本の調理師免許を取得し、その４年後にヘッドハントされる形でロサンゼルスに渡った。店は、リトルトーキョーのランドマークになっている櫓近くにあった櫓一番というレストラン。そして８年間勤続した後に満を持して独立する際、ロケーションをパロスバーデスに決めたのは「この丘から港を見下ろす風景が横浜の本牧にとても似ていたから」だと言う。夜になると、眼下に広がるサンペドロの街の夜景にも郷愁を誘われたそうだ。
「最初はやはり大変でしたね。軌道に乗ったのは２年半後くらい。でも、良かったのはこの辺の住人はイタリア人やクロアチア人が多いということなんです。彼らはアドリア海で獲れる魚介を食べる習慣があるから、タコ、ウニ、それにサバ、アジ、イワシなどの青魚にも抵抗がありません。子どもの頃から食べ慣れているんですね」
こうして、港湾で働くイタリア系やクロアチア系のアメリカ人が同店の常連客となっていった。さらにパロスバーデスの北にあるトーランスの日系企業に働く駐在員を中心とした日本人ビジネスマンやその家族も一定の層を占めるようになった。最初の２年半を除けば、順調に経営を続けていたTashiro だが、トーランスに本社を置いていた北米トヨタがテキサスに移転した１年前からは数字に変化が見られるようになったと田代さんは話す。
「かつては駐在員のお客さんは、日曜の夜に家族で来店されることが多かったんですよ。でも、確実にそのようなお客さんは減ってしまいました。顧客層の様変わりで、以前はよく出ていた金目鯛などの仕入れが減って魚の種類も変わりましたね」
それでも、今もアメリカ人の顧客を中心にディナータイムには賑わいを見せる。ダイニングと寿司バーの顧客はそれぞれ３回転するそうだ。 30 年間、店を続けてきた寿司職人としてのポリシーを聞くと、田代さんは「アメリカに渡ってきた当初は、寿司はこうでなくちゃいけないっていう確固とした信念のようなものがありました。しかし、目の前で最高のトロにウナギのタレをつけて食べるお客さんを見ると、そのお客さんにとって美味しい食べ方ならいいのだというように、時間と共に考え方も変わりましたね。それでも、寿司ネタの新鮮さだけにはこだわります」と答えた。
そして、田代さんが見せてくれた写真には、お重に詰められた寿司と刺身が写っていた。「これは、お客さんがハリウッドボウルに行くので、値段はいくらでも構わないからとびきりの料理を作ってくれ、と注文されたお弁当なんです」と田代さん。ハリウッドボウルは夏の間に夜空の下でコンサートが開催される、ニューヨークで言うところのセントラルパークのような場所。オーディエンスは飲み物や料理を持参して思い思いに音楽を楽しむ。きっと、そのお客さんは自分
が一番好きな料理をハリウッドボウルで味わいたいと思ったに違いない。
多くの客に愛されてきたTashiro。6月で30 周年を迎えたが、「これからも体力が続く限りは店に立つ」ともうすぐ70 歳になる田代さん。「今度からうちの店ではストローを出さないようにしようかと思っています。ウミガメの鼻に刺さったストローの映像を見たら、もう可哀想でね」と、サーファーとしての横顔も持つ。その心優しさも、顧客をこの店に惹きつけ続ける要因だと感じた。
Tashiro
29050 S.Western Ave.Ste 11
Rancho Palose Verdes, CA 90275
(310) 547-4597
Tue.-Fri. 11:30am-1:45pm
Tue.-Sun. 5:00pm-9:30pm
Monday Closed
