CLEVELAND, Ohio - Carmen Paponetti is the sushi expert, but he has his wife to thank for his latest venture, Domo Yakitori and Sushi.
The 27-seat restaurant is going into the back part of the Van Aken District Market Hall. Target opening date is September.
Paponetti, owner of Cabin of Willowick, had gone to the Van Aken website and posted a simple query: "I'm a chef and I want to open another (restaurant) here. They got back to me."
He did so because his wife, Miriam Boraz, suggested it.
"All my good moves come from her," he said.
More than 14 years ago, when they were dating, they went to the then recently opened Parallax in Tremont.
"This is a great place," she told him. "You should try to get a job here."
So the next day he called owner Zack Bruell. The restaurateur hired Paponetti as a part-time sushi assistant. Thus began his career in raw fish.
Stints at the Ritz-Carlton Century Restaurant and Bon Appetit restaurant company followed before he landed at Cabin of Willowick.
It's unlikely someone trained in French cooking would wind up immersing himself in the art of sushi, and that's exactly how he views the small cylindrical rolls of rice, vegetables and fish.
"I love the artistic presentation of it," he said. "I've loved that for years. What I think is amazing about sushi overall, it’s a simple food but that doesn’t make it easy to make it good.
You present it to somebody, and it's such a wow factor if you do it well."
Paponetti aims to deliver that wow factor in the Market Hall, a smorgasbord of counter-service options ranging from well-made sandwiches at On The Rise to sausage at Banter, plus Scorpacciata Pasta Co. and many others. That diversity and communal seating design forms the heart of the restaurant stalls in the Van Aken District.
"I'm super excited," said Paponetti, 47. "I know how to deliver sushi to people. … What I am most excited about is we're going to make a third type of food called okonomiyaki. What this is, is an egg on top of soba noodles that are cooked on a flat top. If you were to call this anything you would call this a cabbage pancake."
Paponetti will focus on the Hiroshima style of okonomiyaki. It will result in a more "layered presentation," and is easier to customize, he said.
"This place is born out of the idea that we're going to sell food that was or at one time was Japanese street food," he said. "This food here you can get at a stand in Japan. Typically the way you would get it is you would walk up, they would build it in front of you, and you would eat it while it's on the flat top."
OK, customers won't be eating it on a flat top in Shaker Heights, but that's the gist of the approach he's taking.
The restaurant will offer a full sushi menu, with rolls, nigiri and sashimi. Yakatori will be focused mostly on chicken, he said.
Paponetti - wearing a CLE hat and 'That's How I Roll' shirt depicting a piece of sushi - described Yakitori as "grilled food on a stick," with tare, a soy-based sauce.
"It’s a lot like sushi in that it's really simple, but it's also not really easy," he said.
Bento-box style meal options will have choices of rice or cabbage slaw or vegetables, he said, and he anticipates the check average to be about $11.
"I learned from Zack," he said. "I was always picking his brain: 'You always want to offer affordable options so people can eat there daily.' "
He also embraces a seafood-sustainable approach with his sushi, saying "Once you know about it, you feel like you're sort of responsible about it."
In addition, Domo will have a full liquor license, so expect
Japanese beers and Japanese soda, along with sake and wine.
The targeted drinks focus is smart. As Paponetti said, those who want more beer options can walk to the front of the hall for Craft Collective's multitude of craft offerings.
"There's no reason to duplicate what they're doing," he said.
Van Aken developers are seeking looser restrictions on open containers through a designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, which will allow people to stroll nearby with a drink.
Domo will be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. So it's a good thing he lives nearby because he will be bouncing from Domo to Cabin and back to Domo often. (He'll take a little time out of his schedule to throw the first pitch at the Dayton Dragons-Lake County Captains game on Sunday, Aug. 25.)
"My kids play in Shaker baseball and softball leagues," he said. "We're really embedded in this community. I eat here a lot."
Paponetti has embraced sushi from his days at Parallax to his current role.
The chance to learn about sushi "was kind of like no one else wanted to do it. Opportunities kept coming my way. In a competitive industry you take what comes your way and try your best to make things work."
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