Formidable Taiwanese Tasting Menu Restaurant Kato Is Shifting to Downtown LA
Jon Yao is finally fulfilling his dream of moving his Taiwanese tasting menu restaurant Kato to a larger room. In early 2022, the Kato team will reopen at the former M.Georgina by San Francisco chef Melissa Perello on Row DTLA in the Arts District, who announced last night that it will not reopen.
Georgina, who also owns Frances and Octavia, never really got a chance to develop M.Georgina with just four months of uptime before the pandemic stopped eating indoors. The closure of M.Georgina allows Kato to take over the site. “It’s difficult to leave a restaurant that has only been open for four months. However, we don’t see a viable path for M.Georgina after COVID, “Perello said in a statement. After thanking staff and guests, Perello said, “We are grateful for the opportunity to hand the torch of this beautiful restaurant into the very capable hands of Jon Yao, Ryan Bailey, Nikki Reginaldo and the Kato team.”
There has probably never been a more improbable LA fine dining success story than Kato.
With a move to an already operational restaurant, Kato’s last day in West LA will be November 20th; The team will take a few months of rest during the holiday season and then ramp up for an opening in January or February 2022. The move to downtown has long been planned for Yao and his partners Nikki Reginaldo and Ryan Bailey, who have jointly founded a new parent company called Like Water Hospitality. The mission of the new group will be to make Kato (and hopefully more restaurants) one of the best gourmet institutions in the country, grabbing the attention of the 50 best in the world and earning two or even three Michelin stars.
Given what Yao did to Kato, there has probably never been a more improbable fine dining success story in LA. Yao first opened in 2016 in a near-hidden mall that was originally billed as a Japanese tasting menu, which was only $ 49 per person. Over the years, he began to look more closely to his Taiwanese and San Gabriel Valley roots, serving what appeared to be simple but well-thought-out raw and cooked seafood, as well as luxurious variations on homemade dishes like the Wagyu beef rice bowl. Since then, Kato has received virtually every accolade a restaurant could want, from a top spot on the LA Times’ 101 restaurant list to a coveted Michelin star to an all-time 38 eatery essential for eater. Yao was named Best New Chef in Food and Wine in 2018, and his eater video on Youtube has received more than 13 million views. That kind of recognition – especially the Michelin star – saved the restaurant, says Yao.
Yao had always planned to move Kato to a location that better suited his ambitions – a larger, more upscale space to match the intricate and beautifully presented dishes. Another desired improvement: Kato’s current mall spot has never allowed full alcohol service due to lack of space and permit requirements. The pandemic continued to weigh on operations, with Yao first making beautiful sashimi bentos in jewelry boxes and then opening them to a tiny outside area in the parking lot. Still, the restaurant pushed to serve a full tasting menu of $ 150 per person (with more for additions) and retained its Michelin star for the last month.
Now with the former M.Georgina room there is a lot of space and the proximity to the San Gabriel Valley.
“We wanted to be closer to SGV, where many of our friends and family came from. Right now, 30 to 40 percent of the people come from SGV who drive two or three hours, ”says Reginaldo, who also grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and remains the enthusiastic personality who touches every table when it comes to service. “A lot of people who come here are young Asian Americans who are grateful for the display and say that having the food remind them of home is a nostalgic experience. At the end we have conversations, then we start texting. We’re having lunch, we’re going to get Boba. We have this kind of intimacy that I really like personally, ”she says. Yao acknowledges that Reginaldo is essential to Kato’s success: “It’s like a mother and a pop. We didn’t move on to a new level until Nikki showed up and people came to identify Kato with her. ”
“We wanted to be closer to SGV, where many of our friends and family came from.”
Bailey, the third pillar of the Kato partnership, came on board three years ago with wine and operations experience in places like NoMad in NYC and LA as well as the Michelin-starred The Kitchen in Sacramento. He brings business acumen and organizational structure to Kato, a complement to Yao’s and Reginaldo’s more hands-on experience in eating and drinking. Before Kato, Yao directed at the Michelin-starred Benu and Coi, where he worked on the line for eight months but otherwise had no experience as a chef. Reginaldo also didn’t work in upscale restaurants before Kato, although she did project management at a brewery and graduated with a degree in hospitality. But Bailey joined the team and believed in Kato’s talent and mission. “With Jon you have one of the better chefs in LA who brings Taiwanese food to the world,” he says.
Bailey believes Kato can achieve both critical and financial success with a new space. “I feel very confident about the business model,” he says, noting that he can take on the less interesting, but no less important, human resources, accounting, and other corporate governance jobs that make a restaurant viable. The trio rounds off their partnership with ambition, friendliness and competence that a gourmet restaurant needs: Yao as the culinary head, Reginaldo the warm, inviting heart and Bailey, the gourmet veteran, the structure (as well as wine knowledge).
Uni with brown butter and tapioca starter at Kato. Kato
Yao is excited about the new opportunities downtown offers. “It is a big plus to have the kitchen designed by a Michelin-starred chef,” says Yao. As for the food, the kitchen has a wood-burning stove that will enrich Yao’s cooking arsenal. There is a separate area to focus on pastries. A full cocktail bar and wine list on par with Kato’s food. Although there is a lot more space, Kato will serve a modest number of guests each night, between 65 and 80, which is little more than the current amount, to allow for a theatrical experience such as table preparation to match a fancy meal.
While the loss of M.Georgina is sure to be a disappointment to Perello’s fans, the inclusion of Kato Yao and his Asian-American cuisine should continue to introduce a wider audience. “I feel like Kato is about to become a French laundry, a Meadowood – an iconic pillar for LA,” says Bailey. Opening just steps from the two-Michelin-starred Hayato by Brandon Go is another plus for Row DTLA, which has a lot of foot traffic on weekends in Smorgasburg but isn’t necessarily a weekday dining destination. The move leaves a gaping hole in West LA, though Yao says the mall’s location will eventually transform into something else that will serve its Westside fans. But that won’t happen until Downtown Kato is firmly established as one of LA’s most special restaurants.
