East Side Story
As the Club prepares to open a new third-floor restaurant this month, chef Francesco “Paco” La Monica offers a taster of the 51 East menu.
Tokyo has around 20,000 Italian restaurants, with 43 of them listed in the world-famous Michelin Guide.
But Italian-American is one variant of the cuisine you won’t easily find, according to Lindsay Gray, the Club’s executive chef.
That changes this month when the Club opens 51 East on the third floor. Named after the 51 founding American Members of the Club and the restaurant’s location within the building, 51 East takes inspiration from chef-driven, Italian-American restaurants in New York City.
“Our lead chef, Francesco ‘Paco’ La Monica, brings refinement to the cuisine,” Gray says. “His personality as a chef is such that the menu we start with could very quickly evolve, based on seasonal inspiration and Member feedback.”
La Monica’s approach to developing a menu is simple.
“It’s easy to surprise someone by giving them exotic ingredients they’ve never tried, but it’s very difficult to surprise them with something they already know,” says the Italian. “Elevating the familiar. That’s the twist of 51 East.”
Ahead of the restaurant’s grand opening on April 8, La Monica shares the inspiration behind three standout dishes from the menu.
Polpo con Patate
“This dish is a creative twist on a classic from Liguria, the region I’m from in northwest Italy. Elevating the traditional method, in addition to boiling the octopus we finish it on the chargrill. We nestle it in potatoes first cooked in the oven and then lightly glazed with fish stock. Two creams inspired by my travels are another 51 East addition. One features piquillo peppers, which I fell in love with while working in Spain, and the other combines ricotta and lemon zest.”
Lobster Ravioli
“Embracing our theme, Lindsay [Gray] and I teamed up to put a 51 East spin on lobster ravioli, a beloved dish on the menus of Italian eateries in America. But instead of Maine lobster, we’ve chosen blue-shelled Irish lobster, which is my favorite. It has a very rich flavor and produces a powerful salsa di aragosta, or bisque. To fill the elegant tortellacci pasta, we mix the chopped lobster meat with ricotta, lemon zest and herbs. A garnish of porcini mushrooms and cress top off the morsels. It looks like a simple dish, but the preparation and flavors are complex.”
Spaghetti Pomodoro Sciué Sciué with Burrata
“Sciué sciué means “quick, quick” in the Neapolitan dialect, and this simple dish was traditionally made during brief work breaks. It’s a signature dish at my mom’s restaurant in Savona and brings back so many childhood memories for me. At 51 East, we elevate this classic by using Japanese amera tomatoes, which are wonderfully sweet and bursting with umami. By cooking them over a high flame, we retain the soul of the raw tomato, and its sugar is caramelized. I’ve added a twist to the family recipe by topping the pasta with a crown of burrata cheese.”
51 East
Weekdays | 6–11pm
Words: C Bryan Jones
Images: Kayo Yamawaki
