The Artwork District’s subsequent nice restaurant hides in plain sight

The lengthy, slender, single-story constructing at 2001 E. seventh St., its catty-cornered entrance going through the intersection of Mateo Road, debuted in 1924. Fortresslike, with imposing concrete brick and Spanish Baroque gilding, the construction as soon as housed a Financial institution of America department. Finally it sat largely unused and unchanged for many years.

In early spring, as a long-delayed signal of life, the constructing’s white façade acquired a brand new door. Fabricated from pale cypress, it pops towards the decorative inlay arching over the doorway, part of which has been painted black to emphasize the light-dark distinction. The door feels weighty, nearly formidable, however with an oddly welcoming design twist: It was put in at a purposeful slant to look as if it’d already be propped open.

“You’re on the proper place,” the angle appears to convey. “Seize the deal with and are available inside.”

That is the way you stroll into 3-month-old Yess Restaurant, which serves a few of the most quietly formidable cooking to emerge in Los Angeles this 12 months. The complicated great thing about the house enhances the kinetic, largely Japanese menu, although the hovering scale of each can take a minute to soak up.

Scan the room’s periphery for the stark, acquainted particulars of Arts District remodels: uncovered rafters and piping, concrete all over the place, craggy purple brick free of layers of plaster, glass-block home windows that attain practically ground to ceiling. The correct eating space goes softer on the senses. At spherical tables, original from fine-grained keyaki, clients go plates of exactingly sliced sashimi, grilled fish perfumed with almond-wood smoke, salads of ripe fruit, and vegetable dishes doubling as coloration wheels.

Diners solo or in pairs possible will land on the sprawling, 42-seat cypress bar. It’s entrance row to the present: an open kitchen that gleams like a starship.

I could make out its varied options and devices — a wood-fire vary known as a kamado fitted with a smoker and large metal steaming basket, the charcoal-fueled robata, a handbook ice shaver stationed close to the again — however then my eyes all the time find yourself refocusing to absorb the general scene. Dramatic half partitions float above the stoves to delineate the house. Their blankness resembles a gallery between reveals, however they aren’t completely naked. Proprietor and designer Kino Kaetsu lined them with monumental, discreet artwork works entitled “Salt Portray” by artist Moeko Maeda. As night time falls and blueish lights glint off all of the metallic and gizmos beneath them, the sci-fi imagery turns into much more vivid: The kitchen doesn’t look a lot constructed however symbiotic, as if a still-operational spacecraft has been embedded so lengthy in a mountain that it’s turn into a part of the terrain.

The chief of the command heart is simple to single out. Junya Yamasaki stands at a midpoint between the opposite targeted cooks, calm, head often down and exceptionally intent.

He channels these qualities into an early, daily-changing signature he calls “monk’s chirashi-sushi.”

In late July a black bowl held purple, inexperienced and orange cherry tomatoes, every with equally bursting textures; contemporary peaches minimize in thick triangles; brilliant, blanched inexperienced beans cleaved on the diagonal; crinkled slips of pickled eggplant; two sorts of shiso for a shock burst of sharp flavors; and toasted almonds for infrequent crunch. The density of components hides a mattress of gently astringent rice beneath. It’s the foil by which these tastes of summer time are expressed individually and collectively.

If a bowl of rice and farmers market loot appears like boring pabulum, or punishment, properly — that is summer time in California, so it tastes like pure goodness to me, significantly when every component has been thought of with such care.

Yamasaki encapsulates his cooking as “progressive Japanese.” I want the phrasing wasn’t so imprecise however concede his type is difficult to summarize. “Japanese seafood restaurant” doesn’t fairly describe its breadth, although Yamasaki is a faithful diver and fisher. Within the a number of years main as much as Yess, he made frequent outings on the water to acquaint himself with Southern California’s sustainable marine life.

On the menu they translate to dishes like entire rockfish filled with fennel, lemon and different aromatics, cooked in parchment simply till opaque and splashed with mild citrus ponzu. Or a number of small hunks of grilled black cod, shaved corn and mochi rice steamed in fig leaves till they’ve absorbed its distinct herbal-nutty earthiness.

Dinner would possibly start with a collage of peaches, nectarines, apricots, pluots and cherries, every at their sunniest prime, in a cooling pool of dashi. Or agebitashi, a Japanese technique of flash-frying greens earlier than braising them in dashi, in order that on this case peppers, slender eggplant and extra-long string beans are yielding with additionally a wrinkly type of crispness. Soy sauce plus grated daikon and ginger usher in ranges and depths of taste.

Someplace between them you would possibly order entire tiny fried horse mackerel, whose bones crackle simply between the enamel, ignited with a reimagining of salsa borracha that features chipotles, anchos, habaneros roasted after which doused with sake. The result’s subtler than utilizing beer or tequila, however Yamasaki makes use of a sake with notes of citrus and pickled plum that works.

He tends to lean into understated combos even in his meatier efforts: sliced pork steak paired with apricot miso, a condiment as contemporary and restrained because it sounds, or grilled beef steak with a salad of grapes, walnuts and a riff on soy-based sukiyaki sauce deglaced with wine and chipotle.

It’s the walk-the-walk strategy to seasonality and expertise for direct flavors that introduced Yamasaki acclaim early in his profession in London. For 5 years he ran Koya, an udon bar that attracted regulars devoted equally to the wonderful noodles and to the small plates that exposed his penchants for produce and nuance. He left the restaurant in 2015 for private pursuits, together with finding out shojin ryori — the Buddhist or temple delicacies that has deeply influenced many elements of Japanese food and drinks tradition — earlier than shifting to Los Angeles.

Giles Clark adopted Yamasaki from London for Yess. Whereas weathering pandemic-related development delays on the restaurant, the 2 of them ran the traffic-cone-orange meals truck Yess Aquatic, which served sashimi and a really satisfying fish katsu sandwich. He now mans the starship as sous chef.

Even with Yamasaki’s worldwide repute, and early native followers earned by way of the truck, I’ve seen comparatively mild crowds in Yess throughout its first few months. Is it the constructing? One buddy who lives downtown remarked that the restaurant has little signage or, missing image home windows, scant avenue presence.

Is it the vibe? I’m bought, but when I veer to snark I can think about the jibes: The considerate, heat crew of servers put on white robe-type outfits that appear to be one thing out of a spa, or possibly costumes in a restaurant-themed Wes Anderson film. And Yamasaki’s use of seasonings within the restaurant’s first weeks was arguably too restrained. He wanted to search out his personal footing and to sync with the Angeleno palate in actual time, and I’d argue he course-corrected shortly.

There’s additionally the price. Costs for extra substantial dishes run from $28 to $55, and large-format platters like the entire fish skirt $80. These fall in the identical vary as most of the always-packed finer-dining choices throughout Los Angeles, however this can be a semi-hidden unknown on a solitary nook throughout a summer time when very important factions of the town’s leisure business are on monthslong strike.

Then once more: In July Yamasaki introduced a restricted particular $180 tasting menu highlighting regionally caught tuna. Amongst its pleasures was hay-smoked tataki served over a mound of herbed daikon and papery sliced lime; marinated and fried bloodline (the identify for darker tuna meat) with mineral, steaky savor; and a chic soup of tuna tsukune with winter melon. Placing the ice shaver to good use, the staff had concurrently rolled out a refreshing, of-the-moment new variation on kakigori — cantaloupe with ginger syrup.

The restaurant had by no means been so crowded. Each staffer in Yess regarded as in the event that they’d discovered themselves in a movie being performed at double-speed, however the expertise got here off with the identical serene finesse.

Discovering its area of interest could take extra experimentation, however I belief that this gifted staff, and its otherworldly house, has an enduring place in L.A.’s eating panorama.