Perry's restaurant review: New chef gives diners fresh reason to return
People occasionally ask me how some restaurants are able to stick around for a long time, and the short answer is, some restaurants share the same traits as people who age well. They start with a good foundation, learn from their mistakes, know the value of relationships and adjust to changing times. Do or die, in essence.
Look at Perry’s in Adams Morgan. Next year, the Japanese retreat with the destination rooftop deck and popular drag brunch turns the big 4-0, an amazing milestone in the mercurial restaurant industry. To go there now, as I have several times the past few months, is to witness a business as vital as it’s ever been.
Named for Commodore Matthew Perry, who helped open Japan to the West, the dining room is nearing the end of an ongoing makeover whose green-and-cream wallpaper, rippled wainscoting and ribbed ceiling give it a lovely, timeless look. Sushi has long been a lure here, appreciated for both the care taken by the cooks behind the counter and for the moderate prices, even as the cost of good fish has, like everything else, soared.
Managing partner Saied Azali gave me fresh reason to return when he hired a new chef in October, Masako Morishita, the first Japanese woman to pilot the kitchen. A native of Kobe in central Japan, Morishita grew up in the hospitality trade. Her grandparents owned a 12-seat tachinomi, or “standing bar,” that eventually became her parents’ place of employment. Morishita, whose family lived above the bar and adjoining market and helped out with both, says she learned to cook from her grandmother and mother, an adventurous cook with an affinity for cheese and olive oil, says the chef, 42. (You may have tasted her food before. Morishita previously cooked at the wine bar Maxwell Park, which retains some of her Japanese accents. Before that, she worked in the Washington bureau of Fujisankei, a Japanese television network, outside of which she hosted pop-ups.)
One of the best salads in recent memory finds slices of crisp Japanese apples in a fire-red gochujang dressing, garnished with crackling chili crunch. Heat meets sweet, and your taste buds are happier for it. Slices of avocado and tofu alternate in an elegant small dish finished with a stripe of tamari soy sauce featuring umami-rich koji rice, which the chef brought back from Japan. The avocado, lightly cured with fruity sake lees, is particularly delicious.
Advertisement
Like mother, like daughter, when it comes to some plates. My first taste of the new chef’s contributions, steamed edamame dumplings, led to me order them every subsequent visit. The pale-green filling, visible beneath the ruffled wrappers, leans in almost as much on pureed garlic as soybeans, and I like how lemon juice and Kewpie mayonnaise balance each other as moisteners. A dusting of parmesan resembles just-fallen snow. Morishita says dumplings were the first thing her mother taught her to make — when she was 2.
You’ll want a bowl of her clams, too. The chef cooks mild white clams with red chile flakes and garlic, incorporating some butter before introducing the clams to a steam bath of seaweed-flavored stock. The silky liquid remnants become another course when you add the rice ball or udon noodles that accompany the main course.
The chef’s okonomiyaki is an edible valentine. The Japanese pancake, fashioned from a housemade batter and chopped cabbage, arrives in a little heart shape. “I wanted something feminine, cute,” says Morishita, who scatters finely chopped prosciutto, another atypical twist, on the pancake. The pink ham crisps when the round is flipped on the flat top. Stripes of velvety Kewpie mayonnaise over black garlic aioli add a rich finish.
Everyone offers a burger these days, and Perry’s is no exception. The beef patty, set on a soft potato roll, is juicy and delicious with housemade teriyaki sauce. Morishita says the sandwich was inspired by the one found in Japanese McDonald’s, “which I really miss.” The memory she serves at Perry’s, in which chopped cucumbers replace all-American fries, makes me think I should check out McDonald’s in Tokyo next visit.
What’s raw is good, too. Consulting chef Noriaki Yasutake is responsible for the sushi program at Perry’s. Nine combination platters address a variety of budgets and wishes; a vegetable combination goes for $20, and salmon and tuna lovers can indulge on three preparations of each fish for $30. If I’m with a group, I spring for chirashi, 15 pieces of fish — fat-marbled salmon, meaty tuna, buttery snow-white escolar, among other treats — arranged like an underwater cityscape on a bed of seaweed-strewn rice.
Advertisement
Credit where credit is due. Makeovers and new menus invite consumer interest, but owners are important to the equation, too. (Imagine, say, any of the many restaurants within the Knightsbridge Restaurant Group being as successful as they are today without the constant care and feeding of proprietor Ashok Bajaj.) In Perry’s case, the keeper of the flame is Azali, who started at the establishment, the onetime Biltmore Ballroom, in 1984 as a waiter (and a graduate student) before working his way up to manager two years later. By 1989, says Azali, it was “completely my restaurant.”
Drag brunch was introduced in 1991. Go to Perry’s on a Sunday morning now, and you tend to see a lot of bachelorette parties as well as transgender youths and their parents, says Azali. “It’s a good, safe place for kids,” says the restaurateur.
This is not a Japanese kitchen that scoops green tea ice cream and calls it a day. Several reasons to hang around before requesting the check include a warm rice pudding — swirled with cranberries and the rice drink amazake, then torched like a creme brulee — and a slice of not-too-sweet cheesecake, a layering of matcha and condensed milk on top, lemon cheesecake in the center and a dark base of crushed Oreos. (The fusion works.) Chocolate mousse flavored with pistachios is dark and dreamy, the kind of finish that would be at home in a French bistro.
Perry’s has experienced ups and downs over time. My last public thoughts on the place were six years ago, when the restaurant seemed to be cooking in place. It still comes with a few flaws. As embracing as the restaurant is for many of us, the Fuji-high stairs leading to the front desk and the decibel count that requires raised voices are a yield sign for other Japan fans. As I was descending the steep and narrow passage between the rooftop and the second-floor dining room on my last visit, I heard a young man joke to his companions, “Imagine if you were lit on these stairs!”
There’s no making up Perry’s many current strengths. Sure, it’s a trek to reach the roof, but that simply means you can sup on sushi beneath the stars. Drag brunch demonstrates the role of restaurants as safe places, and before I finish, I should point out how attentive the service is. “May I present the sake?” one asked, as if our $36 flask of chilled rice wine were Dom Pérignon. Perry’s is a neighborhood marker that is aging well, aided by fresh blood in the kitchen and ultimately, knowing — and caring — about its audience.
Perry’s
1811 Columbia Rd. NW. 202-234-6218. perrysam.com. Open for indoor and rooftop dining, takeout and delivery for dinner 4 to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday; for brunch 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday. Prices: appetizers $4 to $14, main courses $15 to $23; sushi (two pieces) $7 to $10, morikomi platters $20 to $80 (for two people). Sound check: 79 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: Steep stairs lead to the second-floor and rooftop; snug restrooms. Pandemic protocols: Staff members are not required to wear masks or be vaccinated.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLOwu8NoaWlqY2R9dnuPbmapnaKnxrR50Z6qrZmlp66vwIyrnK%2Bhlax8