Adana Chef Will Open Kushikatsu Japanese Restaurant on Capitol Hill

Eater Young Gun award-winner Shota Nakajima, owner of Capitol Hill’s excellent Adana, is planning an even more casual Japanese restaurant for his next project on the hill: a counter-service bar focusing on kushikatsu, Osaka’s famous deep-fried skewers.

Nakajima spent his late teens in restaurants in Japan, including Osaka, where kushikatsu is popular as a street food and izakaya bar snack. He says his relatively small 1,500-square-foot space probably won’t have any servers, just a menu of skewers split into categories by price, like $2, $3, and $4 options, and a spot to place an order.

Kushikatsu sticks can hold meat, fish, and vegetables — potentially anything from pork and beef to octopus and fish sausages to eggplant, lotus root, and mushrooms — deep-fried in a batter of flour, water, egg, and panko breadcrumbs. There are usually dipping sauces shared by all customers, so double-dipping is strictly taboo, but for the American audience and to encourage to-go orders, it wouldn’t be surprising to see individual sauce containers here.

There’s no word yet what this fun addition to the Japanese food scene will be called or where exactly on Capitol Hill it’s located, but those details will surely emerge soon as Nakajima advances his plans.

• All Coverage of Adana [ESEA]
• Why Shota Nakajima Turned From Fine-Dining to ‘Homestyle’ Japanese Cooking [E]
• The Right Way to Eat the Famous Osaka Kushikatsu [Tsunagu Japan]