August 2nd, 2020
12:17PM
A continuation from the last blog post…
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We decided to meet at Bessou since he had to drop off a framed illustration of the restaurant to the owner, Maiko Kyogoku.
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Thanks to Arnold that day, I got the chance to meet Maiko. It was during that very day I decided to execute two blog posts that would interconnect to one another. We exchanged contacts and texted back and forth to figure out when might be a good time to meet and chat.
We originally decided on Sunday, August 16th to meet in the Dumbo, Brooklyn location within Time Out Market. That day was actually Bessou’s 4 Year anniversary! It was definitely a special day to have the interview to say the least. It was going to pour that day, but as the day grew closer the weather forecast improved. The day itself turned out to have light drizzles, but nothing stopped me from venturing out. But of course, life had it’s unexpected curveballs.
Upon getting there, I found out that Maiko actually had to run back to the Noho location because things got unexpectedly busy. Luckily for me, I made plans in Dumbo already for that day, so it worked out well. Besides, I understood. I don’t come from a restaurant/hospitality industry, but I know how demanding things can be sometimes. You have to be able to think on your toes, and adjust quickly to situations. This especially is important when having to deal with customers.
Since it was lunch time, I decided to get some food. What other place to show my support than to get it from Bessou. I got myself a Fried Chicken Karaage Bento. This consisted of spicy mayo, sesame brussel sprout slaw, edamame, nori crunch over rice, and of course the crispy fried chicken karaage. I sat myself down at the outdoor seating provided by Time Out Market. It was really nice to be honest. Even though the weather made things a little damp, there was a pleasant breeze. On top of that, there was a beautiful view of Dumbo by the water. After my picture taking, I dove right into it. I was famished. A part of me didn’t want to start eating though because it was just so beautifully put together. The bowl had so many vibrant colors to it, and it was aligned so nicely. Half was the chicken, and half was all the sides split into 4 sections. Meanwhile you had all the rice waiting to be scooped up from below the thick surface of colors. And you guessed it. It was delicious. I especially loved the karaage. It wasn’t dry at all and had good amount of moisture when biting into it. While combined with the spicy mayo too? Yeesh. I held myself back to save some of that homemade sauce of theirs for my rice.
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We rescheduled for next week Saturday, August 22nd and everything worked out wonderfully. This time, it wasn’t a rainy day and we sat outdoors to chat at the set of tables I was sitting at last week.
Hi Maiko! So tell me a little about yourself.
My name is Maiko Kyogoku. I am Japanese American born and raised in New York. I grew up on the Upper West Side to restaurant parents. My dad owned the restaurant for over 30 years. It was the one of the first sushi restaurants on the Upper West Side.
I would spend time at the restaurant to visit my dad after school. Everyone at the restaurant would know me and when you're little, it's fun to be doted on by all the cooks. I loved the environment and the culture there. Even the fun events! Like there used to be a festival on Columbus Avenue and it used to be really big. I remember my sister and I would go and help them. Especially when we were rallying to get rid of everything at the end, you know?
How influential were your parents?
I loved food growing up. My mom was such an avid cook and wanted us to know about our heritage and where we came from. My mom would cook a lot and she would try to teach us different regional dishes. I remember she would make mochi and show us how to do that. My mom was from the north, from the Akita prefecture. My dad was from Tochigi. He actually fell into the restaurant business too! His rugby coach in college recruited him to run a new restaurant in Spain after working part time at different restaurants to make some extra money. He went because he thought it was exciting to leave the country. He never looked back and went on to come to America and start his business. It's like the American Dream.
Growing up, my dad always told me that a restaurant is not a place for women. He actually really discouraged me from entering the restaurant business. He was like, "It's hard. It's long hours. You're not gonna like it when you're older. Women just don't have the stamina." He just had a very old school mentality of approaching it.
How did you get into the restaurant business?
I actually did not fall into the restaurant business right away. I grew up surrounded by restaurant people not really thinking I wanted to own my own. New Year's is a really big holiday in Japanese culture. Once service was over on New Year's Eve, all the staff would come over to our house. Every year, we would bring in the New Year's together. My sister and I would wake up from our early evening nap and we'd stay up to 4:00AM with them. It was so much fun.
But I actually started off my career completely apart from restaurants.
In high school, I was volunteering at the Red Cross. All four years, I was doing homework help for children in shelters. Then in college, I interned at Sesame Street and Nickelodeon. I loved kids, and I thought I would be going down this children's TV career track. I actually did get a job offer from a production company I had interned at, but for some reason I felt like I wanted something new. I thought I could do that through children's media, on the publishing side. And so I went into children's publishing.
I did that for a couple years, selling movie and translation rights. I was in the subsidiary rights department. It was fun too, some of my best friends are from that time. But then I got bored. I loved the people there, but I could only stare at contracts for so long. I grew up having a lot of different interests. Like you, I've always been pursuing what I loved. Even in college, I wasn't doing the typical law or econ contract. I wanted to do Spanish and study abroad in Spain.
How did your parents feel about you wanting to pursue that as a major?
So in college, my mother passed away pretty suddenly. However my dad has always been kind of a rebel. He's one of the only people among his friend group that actually left Japan and he's never felt like being conventional would get you anywhere. So he thinks I'm like a quirky person, very similar to him, drumming to my own beat. He also admitted that he was an econ major, and he doesn't remember a single thing from being one. He said to try different things.
Oh, back to the career track! So what was after children's publishing for you?
Around that time, somebody introduced me to Takashi Murakami's studio because they were looking for someone with knowledge of licensing and contracts. Something like a project manager who could also negotiate. They also had to be bilingual in Japanese and English. I had never even written a business email in Japanese. The most I'd ever written was to my grandma. I got into that job and rose up the ranks and became Murakami's right hand person. And it was intense. It definitely prepared me for owning my own business, but man I was there for like a year and a half and I basically never left his side. I was traveling like two weeks a month, and we'd go to places like Germany, Ukraine, Japan, etc.
My time there was basically doing his retrospective copyright Murakami. My job was to help with the opening events, coordinating with the museums. But other tasks were trips that were purely schmoozing trips. He had a lot of collectors around the world who had house calls, which was cool. Once we went to Ukraine, to a billionaires country home inside of a forest. What was crazy was it was an hour long drive outside of the main city and when we got to the forest, there was about a mile long winding road with snipers, people with guns. They were basically guarding the main house. I had no idea who he was, but he had just bought one of Murakami's highest selling art pieces at the Christie's auction.
How else was working with Murakami like?
It was really intense and inspirational. The experience definitely taught me about how conservative Japanese companies work. He believes in some really stoic Japanese traditions such as apprenticeship. It's almost like hazing or orientation in Greek life. He puts you through this stuff, like the ringer to see whether you can handle it. And I would travel with him and his team all the time. We'd be sleeping like inside the museum. We'd sleep on the cardboard boxes that had just packaged the art pieces. He loves sleeping on the cardboard for some reason. I think it comes from his artist days when he would fall asleep painting. However he expects everyone to live and breathe his life and work, and it was a little too much for me. After about a year and a half, I decided to get out for my own sanity.
(Continuing her career track)
So I left his company without much of a plan. I actually reached out to somebody, Jean, who I worked for when I was hostessing. I guess in some unconscious way restaurants have been this comfort place for me. I've always been drawn to people. If I find somebody who I respect and admire, I will change my course for them. I loved working for this woman. She's the owner of a restaurant, Momoya, in Chelsea and the Upper West Side. She had just opened the Upper West Side location and was looking for a manager. She figured she could train me to be one and that's what happened. I didn't really plan on that, but I fell into it and for a year I helped her get the place up and running.
After that, I wanted to experience something else in the hospitality environment. I started working for the Thompson Hotel, in the Lower East Side. I started off as an event manager and ended up becoming the F&B Director (food & beverage) director after 2 years into the job. I was kind of toggling between doing events and doing restaurant management. Plus there was a lot of restructuring. The hotel general manager thought I had potential to do more, and got me involved in different things. I ended up being the director of two hotels - the other one being Gild Hall on Wall Street. Who knew that you could end up getting into the hotel industry, just by being in publishing.
From managing two properties, I wondered what it would take for me to own my own business. My dad having owned his own always told me that if I were to ever own anything, especially food related, that I needed to know real estate in order to survive. New York is one of those exceptions where it's not just about having good food, but also having a good location.
So I went into commercial real estate through an individual who owned a company that was sort of a multi disciplinary group that did real estate business development. He would help find investors for chefs and restaurants tours that were looking for their own space. He needed somebody to lead this. I got my broker's license, and for a year I helped a lot of chefs. I met Ivan Orkin and helped him secure his Ivan Ramen location on Clinton Street, and I was the broker for that deal. I got to help Dylan from Parlor Coffee, while he was just a guy working at Blue Bottle at the time. We helped him find a little coffee corner at a barbershop in Williamsburg. Eventually, he went on to have a roastery and everything. I just got to meet and help so many cool people and I learned so much during that year. It was the perfect job for me to learn how to open my own business by seeing how other people were opening their own doors. However it was financially hard, since this was 100% commission. It really taught me about the grit. By the end of it, I was like, "Okay, I think I can do this."
However the one piece of the puzzle left that I still haven't learned was fine dining. I eventually became the director of private dining for a place on 64th street where Daniel Boulud had multiple businesses such as Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud. I was doing his events and I was managing that for about a year and a half.
I was in the office most of the time just cranking away doing contracts, negotiating, and executing events with a team. I learned things that I liked and didn't like about fine dining. I did appreciate and admire it, but eventually I felt like it wasn’t the sort of environment I wanted to work in. I was there for a year and a half and towards the end, I figured I could probably do this myself.
The hotel that I had previously left just happened to need someone, so I freelanced there for about twice a week. I wanted to focus on finding a space and it kind of worked out. I always feel like stars align in certain ways. I started my search and it took about 7 months. One night I was going to dinner with a friend to one of my favorite restaurants, called Bianca. It used to be on Bleecker, where Bessou is now. When I got to the restaurant, it was closed. It was around for 12 years and it was always busy. How can they close? Then a week later, my coworker friend from real estate called me saying that she had a friend who's a Japanese woman that was about to sign a lease to a guy to take over the commercial space. But she had a bad feeling about him, and she'd prefer someone with a Japanese concept to move into her building instead. She was wondering if I knew anybody in my network. It turns out the location was 5 Bleecker, where Bianca had been. I was like, this can't be true. The space had so much meaning to me too. I had spent so many birthdays, celebratory nights, and random weeknights with girlfriends there. It was also a dope block. It was notorious for being a rowdy college street. However the side of Bleecker that we're on is like this oasis in an area that has so much hustle and bustle.
And that's how it all started.
Can you tell me about the branding for Bessou?
Bessou was designed with a local design company, FAREWELL. It was in collaboration with an indigo dyeing company called blue ISO, originally from Japan. One of the founders of blue ISO was actually a coworker of mine from Murakami's office.
Bessou actually means vacation home or home away from home in Japanese. The idea of the branding is that things are homemade, natural, and organic - paying respects to tradition. However at the same time it's making it your own.
When you go to bessous in Japan, with them being bnbs in the countryside, it may be hosted by an individual who's a little more worldly and well traveled. They can be making Japanese food, but with a touch of maybe a Moroccan style from their most recent trip. And it can always change in that sort of way - that's how I view food. With Bessou being in New York, and me having grown up here, I want the flavors of the local New York ingredients to shine through our Japanese food too. That's the idea that I wanted to embody in our branding.
I fell in love with indigo dyeing. The color we use is indigo blue, and is also called Japan blue. The birthplace of Indigo is from Fukushima where there are indigo fields. We actually have two panels in the restaurant that have this really beautiful abstract design. It's actually the word Bessou deconstructed - B, E, S, O, and U. FAREWELL really took what I was saying and translated it into art and design. In our logo, there's also a line with two shorter lines. That's part of the Japanese character for house, so this kind of gives a nod to the fact that Bessou is like a second home. Even our font choices, they're supposed to evoke a handmade feel or something that's more analog, as opposed to digital, because that's really how we make things at the restaurant.
Has COVID been tough on you and how has it affected the restaurant?
COVID has definitely devastated the industry. it's really hard. We were lucky enough to get the PPP loan and the economic disaster loan. We're on a street where we can only open 3 days a week for outdoor dining. Every day we have to like bring out the barricades, tables, and chairs, and every night we have to put them back in. The city is really unreasonable. That's been pretty hard on us on top of the whole COVID pandemic.
Right now, we are just waiting. The unknown is really the hardest part - not knowing when this is all gonna end. And for myself as the owner, how do I lead a team when I have none of these answers, and I'm at the mercy of the government and this virus. I can't even promise people their jobs back, but also some of my staff don't want to come back right now. They're afraid, you know? And you also have to make a living to keep going. So it's a lot of complex feelings right now.
Do you guys have any plans for the winter?
We've exhausted a lot of our ideas. We're doing takeout, delivery, and even doing pantry items. We are selling frozen foods for the first time and meal kits. We've also been doing relief meals, working with Heart of Dinner to serve community and senior homes. The donation money from them helps me to help pay my staff, food costs, and all that stuff. Other than that, the only other course of action I'm thinking of right now is to renegotiate my lease with the landlord. Right now we are lucky that the landlord has given us a rent break, a reduction for the rest of the year. But unless we really just sit down and renegotiate the whole thing I won't be able to pay the rent next year. So that's on the top of my mind. As for Dumbo location, within the Time Out Market, there will be takeout and delivery in place. We're just kind of taking it day by day right now. We were doing 7 days a week of weekend brunch, but 3 days a week and stuff? It's impossible. It's like a losing battle. Right now, what's important to me is to keep it open, and to have my staff paid.
What would you tell those who are on the fence about going out for outdoor dining?
I think if you are on the fence, you should stay home and just please support by ordering takeout or delivery. For those that do come out, we are taking as many safety protocols as possible and using government approved sanitizing solutions and disinfectants. We have contactless menus and are making sure customers wear masks when they go to the bathroom. And obviously our staff are always wearing masks and gloves. I would also really, really urge diners to please, please be respectful of one another and the restaurant staff as well. It's a time where we, as citizens, need a heightened sense of empathy and care for one another.
We're using Resy for reservations, but a lot of times, people have a habit of reserving like multiple restaurants or multiple days and then canceling them for one.I would really tell people not to do that, especially this time where we only have half of our tables for outdoor dining. They do it all the time. I see people making reservations like Friday and Sunday and at the last minute they'll decide to not come on the earlier date, but on a later date just because it's just more convenient for them. It's to put a place mark on whatever reservation. But for us, they’re taking away one of our table sets. You know, it's hard.
What was a favorite dish of yours while growing up? (I tried closing it off with a lighter question)
I loved soupy dishes, like hotpot. My mom's chicken and rice dumplings too was also one of my favorite things I have ever eaten.
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And that was about an hour of her time! I didn’t want to hold her for too long too, despite all the wonderful stories I wanted to still hear from her. Plus I didn’t really get the chance to talk about myself as much either. Hopefully we’ll get another time like this in the future. I really want to establish connections with people and not just contact them when I need them for something. It’s something that’s pretty challenging to do, especially when we all have so much going on in our lives. However, I believe that if you make a conscious effort to do so, people will see that, respect that, and understand your beliefs.
To wrap up the day, I had to have more food from them! This time around I got their Crispy Rice Trio. These were crispy rice cakes made in-house topped with fresh fish, flavors, and garnishes. They were a cross between sushi and onigiri.
Spicy Tuna
Salmon Sashimi
Yuzu Cucumber
The description for these is actually “A perfect meal to go.” That was the exact predicament I was in. My friends were waiting in a car outside to pick me up. As soon as I got the food, I thanked Maiko for it, as well as her valuable time to speak with me. Then I dashed outside to the car and ate there. I opened my take out box to find 3 beautifully prepared masterpieces. It came with some soy sauce too that I opened up and put to the side of my container. As the car drove, I was taking in every bite of that delicious meal. Yes I was also famished, and it hit the spot after I was done.
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Will this be my last blog post about the food/hospitality industry? Most likely not. I’m discovering new things about myself each time I put these blog posts together. I want to continue to support local restaurants, businesses, and my friends. I wonder what my next one might be about. Let’s see what I brainstorm about these next couple weeks. If you’ve read this far too, thank you so much for reading! It makes me happy knowing that even 1 person from my network takes the time to do so. So thank you!
Read through the whole thing? Yay!
Just skimmed it and got to this point? Not a problem!
Either way, please consider dining at Bessou.
You can click into Resy to make reservations.
You can also order takeout.
Hope you can support them! :)