Story of CICADA

We started thinking about opening the next restaurant when the reconstruction work for T.Y.HARBOR got on track. Our basic concept for a restaurant that we would open completely from scratch and by our own hands was to be a restaurant that we would want to go to regularly, one that would be easy to use. David had the idea for Mediterranean cuisine that focused on Spain and Morocco, and there was a modern tapas boom occurring at the time in the United States, so if our concept focused on the casual lifestyle of the Mediterranean it would end up being very fresh. We envisioned people enjoying themselves by casually sharing simple cuisine and wine, without there ever being anything thrust on them by the restaurant, so that they eat what they like as they liked for as much as they liked. That was the kind of restaurant we decided we were going to try and create.

The problem was where were going to open it. We were aiming to do so in the heart of the city where competition was fierce, but we knew that since T.Y.HARBOR had so much space, we would have to choose a location with impact, even if we couldn't get to the same level as that. In our first ever search for property, I relied purely on my gut feelings and I think I looked at close to 100 different locations over the course of more than a year without finding anything I could agree to, which was when, of course, I was introduced to this location. This was built in Nishi-Azabu and operated for nineteen years as an Italian restaurant, I Pizelli, a location for which it was beloved by a generation of people, and while it was close to Nishi-Azabu, it was still in a bustling area, with places for cars to easily park, and it also sat on a corner with the desired amount of floor space, making it, I thought, the ideal location for our restaurant.

We went in with everything included, but started by completely re-decorated, leaving the kitchen where it was. When we considered the lines of movement for the bar, we knew that keeping the entrance near to the intersection corner of the building would be problematic, so we shifted the entrance to the Hiroo side, and although the old restaurant did not allow passers-by to look in, we changed that and made all the exterior walls into plate glass windows. We had also originally thought we would strip out all the interior walls to create one much larger space, but as we working we discovered that there was actually a load-bearing wall that we couldn’t find on some of the old blueprints. That forced us to divide down into three smaller spaces, but as it turns out they are all connected, so we ended up with the right level of relaxed space.

For the interior design, we used wood and indirect lighting, as well as lighting using real candles, olive wood floors, and we used wood-burning fireplaces to aim for a warm, relaxed space. As we considered the ease of use, we decided to accept reservations until the kitchen closed at 2am, and allowed people to order from the full menu, even when seated at the bar. We collected 80 varieties of wine, focusing on those from the coastal Mediterranean region, and made twenty of those varieties available to order by the glass. We were aware of the risk but we made the volume and the price of the glass of wine equal to one-fifth that of the bottle, so that guests could enjoy various different wines.

There was a lot of hard work involved in our first ever opening, but we met so many different people that it was a different emotional attachment when compared to T.Y.HARBOR. Since the opening in 2003, the restaurant has attracted many fans, but whenever I stop in, there’s a sense of relief as if I’ve come home. That’s the kind of restaurant it is.