It was just a few minutes before Monday night’s industry preview party Shared seafood Work was set to begin in Los Angeles’ Arts District, when owner and dry fish pioneer Liu Liao gave a few dignitaries a quick tour of the 4,000-square-foot space.
“We thought it would be 3 times,” Liao told the Observer when asked about the amount of fish he can now serve to his restaurant and retail customers.
Tripling his ability would be a huge accomplishment, but it turned out that Liao had underestimated it.
“It will be 4x, 5x,” Liao said during Monday’s tour. “We were at 4,000 to 5,000 pounds a week. That pays 15,000 to 20,000 pounds.”
Guests like Verse chef Oscar Torres and Majordomo Media co-founder Christopher Chen reflected on that astonishing number while Liao continued to bow like a man who knows he’s changed the game.
“See that tuna room over there?” Liao asked. “No one in the world can hang 350 pounds anywhere right now unless they have a forklift. We can do it. How many locations see a 400-pound fish hanging? We’ll get to 500 pounds.”
Liao then entered the tuna room and circled a fish that was twice his size while Josh Ko, his right-hand man, looked on with the amusement of someone who knew he would soon have to unpack a lot of that tuna.
The new Joint Seafood restaurant will open at 600 E. 1st St. Around the beginning of April with Liao’s Restaurant Uchiba A craft bar, café and dry rooms with 14-foot ceilings. The main focus of Joint Seafood will be a retail market selling carefully sourced fish e.g ora king salmon, Balfegó tuna and Seremoni smoked black cod, all of which were used to make hand rolls at Monday’s preview party.
And in the near future, Liao will have an omakase bar on a 16-foot stage at the new Joint Seafood restaurant.
“It will be an omakase phase featuring collaborations with other chefs around the world using our fish,” Liao said.
As always, Liao, who sells fish to restaurants run by notable chefs including Wolfgang Puck, Dominique Crenn and Enrique Olvera, José Andrés is here to remind everyone that “fresh is boring.” He wants the world to know that dry fish neutralizes flavors, improves texture, and removes impurities.
The original Liao’s Joint Seafood in Sherman Oaks, which opened in 2018, is busier than ever. He ran out of energy there. So it’s time to make a much bigger bet.
“In 2018, we set out to change the way fish is sold around the world,” Liao told the crowd Monday night before he and his wife, Iris Chen, welcomed everyone to a Dasai sake barrel-breaking ceremony. “This is the next stepping stone to realizing this dream.”
Clearly, the Los Angeles restaurant industry believes in Liao’s dream. At Monday night’s party, Damian’s Chuy Cervantes prepared tacos with dry-aged barramundi while 626 Hospitality Group’s Amber Tan and Waldo Yan garnished a salted yuzu sorbet with caviar. Christian Yang of Yang’s Kitchen showed off his new brand Joimo kombucha.
Anajak Thai’s Justin Piccitronsi got into the action with Noel Cornelio, co-founder of Majordomo Media, while Kato’s John Yao checked out Damien’s outdoor taco setup. Chefs and operators from Jitlada, Steep LA, Antico Nuovo, Jade Rabbit, Avi Cue, Flouring, Cobi’s, Casa Vega and Redbird traded hands while creators Nigel Ng and Celine Linarte chatted at the hand-roll bar (presented by inKind, which helped fund Joint Seafood’s expansion). NextShark founder Benny Luo and Hedley + Bennett founder Ellen Marie Bennett surveyed the scene while Saffy general manager Nick Sasto had a moment with music industry power couple Orly and Ziggy Marley.
Torres considered Joint Seafood’s new capability and what it will mean for Verse and many other restaurants. Then, perhaps in an attempt to gain favored allocations at Verse, Torres complimented Liao.
“He is the greatest fishmonger of our generation,” Torres said. “Fortunately, he’s not a gatekeeper.”
That’s the thing about Liao. He wants to change the way the world’s best restaurants think about fish, but he’s also happy to sell to private chefs and home cooks. He consults for supermarket chains and wants to open hand roll bars across the country. The 400-pound tuna is just the beginning of the new chapter for Joint Seafood.
