We may have lost congee-caff Lawyers Guns and Money but as a peace offering, the gods of hospitality bring you Chotto, a fine-dining Japanese cafe on the city edge of Fitzroy.
It's husband-and-wife team Brendan and Caryn Liew's first venture
. Chef Brendan used to be Andrew McConnell's sashimi guy at Golden Fields, and he cooked in Tokyo and Hong Kong at RyuGin, a kaiseki (multi-course) restaurant. He's bundled up this training with a rice-based menu: claypot-cooked rice is served tableside from an ohitsu, an absorbent cedar pot designed to keep the rice fluffy and crisp-bottomed.The go-to dish is a breakfast set of soy-marinated grilled fish, dashimaki tamago (rolled-up omelette) and wilted steamed greens steeped in house-made dashi; otherwise check out the obanyaki (ham and raclette-stuffed pancakes) or rice porridge with poached chicken, toasted nori and chrysanthemum.
Coffee comes courtesy of Monk Bodhi Dharma, and there's a focus on tea service: genmaicha and sencha from Kyoto's Wazuka tea plantation and proper ceremonial grade matcha whisked while you watch.
If the lightweight, soft-brushed plywood furniture looks disposable that's because it is; the three communal tables and their squat little stools will ship out to make way for a more formal omakase-style restaurant later this year.
Open Tue-Fri 6.30am-3pm; Sat-Sun 8am-3pm.
35 Smith Street, Fitzroy, facebook.com/Chottomelb/
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