SPRINGFIELD — Restaurant veteran Chris McKiernan says too many folks in the industry dismiss a new idea for Springfield as, well, too new of an idea for Springfield.
“I sort of got sick of hearing that,” McKiernan, owner of the new Bar Kaya sushi and ramen restaurant. “I love the town and I love the direction it’s going in.”
Bar Kaya will open in the middle of May in space at 278 Worthington St. McKiernan is renting from restaurateur Victor Bruno.
McKiernan said the restaurant will bring something to Springfield that no one else is doing: an “omakase” menu. Omakase isn’t a dish but a way of organizing the meal.
“It translates to ‘Leave it up to the chef,’” McKiernan said. “So he dictates your sushi experience for a few hours.”
The chef — in the case of Bar Kaya that’s Desmond Chow — chooses the sushi dishes the party will eat and the order in which those dishes will be served. The focus is what’s fresh and what’s in season, McKiernan said.
Thirteen courses on the omakase experience costs $79 and 22 courses is $129. There will be two seatings a night for six or eight patrons each. Bar Kaya will soon accept reservations for omakase.
“It’s a tasting menu so it’s going to take an hour and half to two hours to complete,” he said.
Sushi and ramen dishes will also be available on a more familiar a la carte menu and without a reservation for about $7 to $8 per sushi dish and $12 for ramen.
The restaurant seats 60 to 65 patrons, McKiernan said.
Chef Wayne plans Big Mamou Cajun on the Go takeout, delivery shop on Worthington Street
Cajun on the Go will be in a small building in downtown Springfield.
McKiernan’s first job was in a restaurant, and he’s never really left the industry, most recently working for a chain steakhouse.
Chow, from Hong Kong, trained in Japan and most recently worked for a sushi bar in Atlantic City, McKiernan said.
The city of Springfield gave a $175,000 low-interest loan for the renovation project under a federally funded program to enhance the downtown dining district.
McKiernan said the Worthington Street location is perfect because the city is fixing parks nearby including Stearns Square and Duryea Way. The nearby Springfield Innovation Center is open and the facade is nearing completion.
“A lot of progress,” he said. “We want to be the ground floor of that.”
https://www.masslive.com/business/2019/05/bar-kaya-sushiramen-restaurant-bringing-chef-led-omakase-dining-to-springfield.html 2019-05-06 10:45:00Z
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