Grillty Pleasures

"Here we play a lot of chill, house and lounge music," says Paolo Abaya, the 29-year old owner of Ebisu. You would be forgiven for thinking the young entrepreneur was speaking of the latest raver haunt. Indeed, TV monitors tuned into Fashion TV’s libidinous fleshfest and narra wood panels that contrast against the concrete-like finish of the floor complete the deception.

Actually, Ebisu Grill is a Japanese restaurant along Jupiter Street in Makati. While Ebisu does not disdain the rigid heritage of Japanese cuisine, it does shake things up a bit. Abaya’s brainchild is unrepentantly populist and revels in its premeditated lack of authenticity–no jolting Irasshaimase! greetings or kimono-clad waitresses shuffling painfully to reach your table in this restaurant.

After the fourth grade in Xavier, Abaya left for the United States, eventually earning a degree in Management from the University of San Francisco. Among his favorite pastimes in San Francisco was dining at Juban, a popular yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku is Japanese for grilled meat cooked on a griddle in the middle of your table, often over a charcoal or gas oven, and eaten with vegetables cooked the same way. Most yakiniku restaurants follow the Korean style of barbecue. In Japan, locals take pride in their knowledge of tasty yakiniku served at inexpensive, happening spots.

The history of yakiniku in Japan is relatively new. After World War II, when the nation was in the midst of a serious food shortage, Korean residents of Osaka opened small canteens that familiarized the Japanese with their cuisine, including yakiniku. In less than 60 years, yakiniku has established itself as one of the nation’s most well-loved foods. Abaya’s subsequent visits to Juban confirmed a creeping suspicion–Filipinos in San Francisco couldn’t get enough of this specialty food. He says, "I noticed the number of Filipinos increasing. It was always filled with Pinoys! So I got the idea that maybe it would do well here in the Philippines."

One half of the Ebisu idea was conceived. The other half would have to wait until Abaya found his way to Japan.

In 1995, Abaya enrolled in an Asian language course then trained for the Mergers & Acquisitions Department of Sanwa Bank in Tokyo. His hard-drinking colleagues made it a routine to drop by an izakaya after work, and Abaya found himself introduced to the enchantments of the Japanese tavern. "It’s their version of a tapas bar. The clientele at the izakaya were mostly office people, sometimes students. (My workmates) would take me to these places where you could load up on drinks and have all sorts of pika-pika. I was very fond of that," he says.

Here was the inspiration that would fill in the blanks of his nebulous dining concept. "The thing about Juban was that all they had were the grills–it was all raw. They didn’t have any appetizers. If you were craving for something else, there was nothing. So I thought it would be perfect to combine both influences–a bar-like, tapas-type place with all the grills," says Abaya, with a smile so luminous you could almost visualize the light bulb flashing above his head when the idea finally hit him.

Working in Japan’s financial sector exposed Abaya to the efforts of the Philippine government to entice the Japanese to invest in his country of birth. The exposure had the unanticipated effect of making Abaya homesick. "I myself was influenced to come back!" he says. "I hadn’t lived here since I was 10 years old. I felt it was about time I got to know my roots and check out the Philippines again. Most of my family was in the Philippines and I wanted to get closer to them. I always wanted to own my own resto/bar but I never knew I would do it here. It took me a year to set it up."

In the meantime, the energetic young man landed a job as head of customer relations at Honda Philippines. Finding greener pastures, he switched to Isuzu in 1999 where he is currently General Manager. Having steered the struggling diesel engine experts to an impressive turnaround, Abaya felt comfortable enough to venture beyond his day job.

Picking a name for his restaurant was easy. Ebisu, one of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune, is the deity of prosperity in one’s chosen occupation. In agricultural villages, he is considered the deity of rice paddies while in fishing villages, he is believed to ensure a good catch. He is also venerated as a deity of the kitchen. Ebisu is usually depicted carrying a sea bream (a symbol of good luck) under his left arm and a fishing rod in his right hand.

Ebisu is also the name of a fashionable ward that can be accessed on foot from its surrounding neighborhoods Nakameguro, Daikanyama, Hiroo and Shibuya. A decade or so ago, Ebisu was redeveloped into a residential and commercial district housing many world-class restaurants. There is also a wide range of sophisticated fashion shops for those looking for shopping options away from the maddening crowd. Says Abaya, "Ebisu in Japan is more for the young, yuppie crowd to hang out in."

Choosing a name was one thing, getting the restaurant off the ground was another. "There’s a big difference between being an entrepreneur and being corporate. In the corporate world, I have my finance manager and my administration manager to help me, for example. When you start your own business, you’re on your own, basically. It was quite difficult. I had consultant friends who helped me out but basically you do everything, from finance to human resources."

Among the friends who lent a helping hand was architect Gil Coscolluela. Based on books presented to him by the architect, Abaya identified a look for his baby–ultramodern but hardly ascetic, slick but convivial. Floor lights were used to indirectly light the ruddy narra-paneled walls, creating depth and warmth. At the back is a small bar where Ebisu’s specialty drink, the timidity-banishing Kamikaze Shaker, is skillfully mixed.

The stars of the show–what Abaya calls his "competitive advantage"–are the centralized downdraft grills integrated into the black lacquered misono tables imported from Japan. Powerful exhaust fans are located underneath the grills to extract cooking smells into ducts ingeniously concealed inside floor-to-ceiling pillars and behind walls. He says, "In other restaurants, the food is good but the smoke comes right out so you end up stinking like anything. If you were on a business lunch, you wouldn’t want to go back to work! If you’re on a date…well, at least you’ll both smell."

Choosing items for the menu reflects Abaya’s M&A experience–he acquires the trust of chefs, charming them into divulging their recipes, and then merges the information with his own culinary philosophies. "I get recipes through hit and miss. One of my hobbies now is to buy cookbooks–in my bag right now, I have seven of them that I carry around. But I don’t copy exactly what the cookbook says. I add stuff to that to make it different. For instance, I taste something I like in Japan and I’m looking for a certain taste, I ask the chef to tell me how he made a certain dish–or at least give me a vague description of the ingredients. I then add my own touches. I’ve always enjoyed cooking although I don’t like the cleaning up," he smiles.

After fine-tuning his discoveries on some very fortunate friends, Abaya unleashes them on Ebisu’s menu. Most of the dishes make calculated concessions to the idiosyncratic Filipino palate–the aim is to expose rather than instruct. To date, the U.S. Black Angus Rib-eye and Chicken yakiniku are the uncontested bestsellers, although the Tiger Prawns yakiniku is fast approaching cult status among regular Ebisu patrons. You may choose to handle the grilling duties yourself or have the staff expertly wield the chopsticks as they flip the quick-grilling meat and seafood to perfection.

The newly introduced Spicy Tuna Salad (tuna with spicy cream sauce), Hotate (fried scallops), Okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza) and the sublime Shiitake Shinjo-Age (stuffed shiitake mushrooms) join time-honored sushi and sashimi favorites among the nearly three dozen appetizers available at Ebisu.

A la carte meals include the outstanding Shake no Miso Butter or seared salmon marinated in miso topped with wasabi butter, Saikoro Steak or Japanese salpicao, Shiitake al Pepperocini or spaghetti cooked with olive oil and garlic mixed with shiitake mushroom and the Katsu Curry or breaded pork chop with Japanese curry sauce.

Abaya describes his typical day as very Japanese–"Isuzu by day, Ebisu by night." The workaholic pace has altered his leisure time priorities. "I get six hours of sleep a day. I get to play golf just once a month now. In my free time, I read or sleep! Even if I had the time to play golf, I would prefer to stay in, wake up late, do nothing, watch TV. Just vegging," he concedes.

One hobby Abaya has had a chance to resurrect at Ebisu is playing deejay. Instead of the traditional string and woodwind sounds of the koto and shakuhachi, Ebisu is suffused with the hipper beats of Abaya’s prerecorded compilations. "I started spinning in San Francisco. We used to get together–the whole Filipino community–in the red-hot clubs and have our own Euphoria and Faces. Nowadays, I lean towards the house and lounge type thing. But now I sort of treat it like a hobby and don’t go out and promote myself anymore. I used to spin in Bistro 110 and other parties but you get tired. Medyo hindi ko na kaya. I’m out of the loop already!"

Abaya is refreshingly candid about the unconventional nature of his restaurant. "As a matter of fact, I didn’t want to make Ebisu look traditional. It’s very modern and not very Japanese. The food has the Filipino palate in mind. In fact, I’m having a hard time getting the Japanese to come in–you know how homogenous they are. I realized early on who my market was going to be. I know Pinoys more than the Japanese–this is my strength."

The Jupiter Street strip is jumping with activity these days. Even the all-conquering Starbucks has set up shop, giving the location its seal of approval. But the real gem is an unassuming little Japanese restaurant that serves terrific fare, where the doorman vigilantly denies jaded convention entry.