yesterday, on my way out of the office, bill greeted me: “sashimi?” “yes,” i responded.

so we ended up meeting up at my place around 6:30, with no plan whatsoever. fortunately, someone had left section 2 of the reader lying around on top of the empty reader box over at the starbucks — the section which contains restaurant news and reviews.

Kaze, 2032 W. Roscoe, 773 327 4860. Small plates of Japanese fare from executive chef Macku, formerly at Heat and Mirai, are served at this sleek Roscoe Village place.

we headed north and found the place very easily — red line to belmont, #77 to damon, north a few blocks to roscoe, then west a block.

i think it’s safe to say that we were both very pleased. bill got off into one of his incomprehensible food snob blah-blah-blahs, which i tuned out on — sorry, bill — and just enjoyed my venison, which was served in a mild sauce with baked apple rings, which went nicely with the venison. they also served me a very tasty toasted green tea, brewed very lightly, which was enjoyable. the venison was presented nicely on a lovely plate with a filigree design around its rim, but bill got plain sushi ware: pbbbbt!

byob at the moment, since as they just opened three weeks ago they haven’t got their liquor license yet. so while bill was waiting to order, i hiked back a few blocks to the liquor store on damen we’d passed en route, and picked out a bottle of $8 sauvignon blanc from their refrigerated selection. yes, yes, i know i should have picked a red to go with venison, bill gave me shit about that too, but i like white better and he was getting nigiri sushi, so i broke the rules. actually, i think it held up very well against the venison, because it was very flavorful. it was altogether okay for an $8 bottle of wine from the corner store. the wine steward who opened it up for us had a good sense of humor and, it turns out, knows someone who works for the oriental institute, so we chatted briefly about that as well. bill claims he checked him out, but i think bill is probably just being silly.

and i finished off the meal by breaking my diet enough for a small serving of red bean ice cream — my favorite — which came served in a delicate teacup with a dollop of whipped cream on top, and with a bit of what might have been lychee syrup around it? it was also excellent, and exactly enough of a sweet to satisfy without being excessive.

so, yay Kaze. i would definitely return here, even though i didn’t get my sashimi as planned.