The first thing you smell when you walk up to the front of Kemuri Tatsu-ya is smoke.
Story by Rochelle Friedewald
Around the back of the sleek, wood paneled building on East Cesar Chavez, a huge outdoor smoker gives the air a homey, southern scent. That might seem strange for an Asian fusion restaurant, but this isn’t your typical Japanese joint—Kemuri Tatsu-ya is Austin’s first Texas-inspired izakaya. Instead of the traditional Japanese izakaya (i.e. a pub that serves little dishes of shared foods), co-owners and executive chefs Tatsu Aikawa and Takuya Matsumoto add a little southern flavor to each dish. “I love this culture,” says Aikawa, a Tokyo-born Austinite. “I grew up with all of this.”
By all this, Aikawa means the history, the food and the flavor of the beloved Lone Star State. You can smell that love for Texas in the air at Kemuri Tatsu-ya. Slow-cooked brisket, a staple of the restaurant’s predecessor, Live Oak Barbecue, as well as Kemuri, still roasts in the old outdoor smoker every day.
The Japanese chef duo made a name for themselves five years ago. Back in 2012, Aikawa and Matsumoto opened Ramen Tatsu-ya, a Japanese eatery that quickly became an Austin favorite. Both chefs opened the ramen restaurant as a celebration of the culture they come from. “It’s the soul food of Japan,” Matsumoto says.
Their love for flavor didn’t stop with a bowl of ramen. Kemuri Tatsu-ya, the brainchild of Aikawa, was thought up as a place for young Austinites to relax and enjoy a conversation over sake and a familiar yet innovative taste.
Photo courtesy of Kemuri Tatsu-ya.
The menu features combinations you’d never think of, but the talented Aikawa and Matsumoto inevitably make them work. Patron favorites like the sticky rice tamale, Tokyo street corn and “TX butter” tsukemen are all paradoxical in ingredients but satisfyingly rich in flavor. This contradictory yet pleasing mix is even reflected on the very walls of Kemuri—an eclectic selection of deer heads, iron cast horse shoes and Japanese calligraphy work cover the walls.
While all the food at Kemuri is refreshingly inventive, authenticity and tradition are still the heart and soul of the Tatsu-ya cooking. The fermented vegetable dish is a family recipe both chefs and waiters of Kemuri speak fondly of. The story of Matsumoto sneaking his grandma’s vegetable dish through airport security after a visit to Japan is exchanged and laughed about.
The tinkering and tampering of both Texas and Japanese foods is almost like second nature for the two chefs. “It’s no big deal,” says Aikawa, who shrugs off praise of his culinary ingenuity. This effortless authenticity and desire to bridge two very different but very beloved cultures is the root of the Kemuri spirit, and drives both chefs to continue to create.
