It was minutes before the industry preview party on Monday night Mixed Seafood In the Los Angeles Arts District it was set to begin, when owner and dry fish pioneer Liwei Liao gave a few VIPs a quick tour of the 4,000-square-foot space.
“We thought it would be 3x,” Liao told the Observer when asked about the amount of fish he can now serve to his restaurant and wholesale customers.
Tripling his volume would be a huge achievement, but it turns out that Liao was underestimating it.
“It will be 4x, 5x,” Liao said during Monday’s visit. “We were doing 4,000 to 5,000 pounds a week. This is pushing 15,000 to 20,000 pounds.”
Guests like Verse chef Oscar Torres and Majordomo Media founder Christopher Chen pondered the incredible number as Liao continued to evolve as a man who knew he had changed the game.
“See that tuna room over there?” Liao asked. “No one in the world can hang 350 pounds in any place right now unless they have a forklift. We can do it. How many spots do you 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 as his right-hand man, Josh Ko, watched with the glee of someone who knew he would soon have to break down a lot of that tuna.
The new Seafood Joint at 600 E. 1st St. will open in early April with Liao’s Uoichiba hand roll bar, coffee bar and aging rooms with 14 foot ceilings. The focus of Joint Seafood will be a retail market selling carefully sourced fish such as salmon king, Balfegó tuna and Seremoni smoked black cod, all used to make hand rolls at Monday’s preview party.
In the near future, Liao will have an omakase bar on a 16-meter platform at the new Joint Seafood.
“It will be an omakase platform that includes collaboration with other chefs around the world using our fish,” said Liao.
As usual, Liao, who sells fish to restaurants run by prominent chefs including Wolfgang Puck, Dominique Crenn, Enrique Olvera and José Andrés, is here to remind everyone that “new is boring.” He wants the world to know that dry fish clarifies flavor, improves texture and removes impurities.
The original Liao’s Seafood Joint in Sherman Oaks, which opened in 2018, is busier than ever. He’s basically exhausted there. So it’s time to make a big bet.
“In 2018, we plan to change the way fish is sold around the world,” Liao told the crowd Monday night just before he and his wife, Iris Chen, welcomed everyone with a Dassai sake barrel-breaking ceremony. “This is the next step in realizing that dream.”
Apparently, the Los Angeles restaurant industry believes in Liao’s dream. At Monday night’s party, Damian’s Chuy Cervantes made tacos with dried barramundi while 626 Hospitality Group’s Amber Tan and Waldo Yan topped off their salty yuzu sorbet with caviar. Christian Yang of Yang’s Kitchen demonstrated his new Joimo kombucha range.
Anajak Thai’s Justin Pichetrungsi joined the party with Majordomo Media co-founder Noelle Cornelio, while Kato’s Jon Yao checked out Damian’s outdoor taco setup. Chefs and operators from Jitlada, Steep LA, Antico Nuovo, Jade Rabbit, Avi Cue, Flouring, Cobi’s, Casa Vega and Redbird broadcast as content creators Nigel Ng and Celine Linarte chat in the hand-roll booth (presented by inKind, which helped finance the expansion of Joint Seafood). NextShark founder Benny Luo and Hedley + Bennett founder Ellen Marie Bennett checked out the scene while Saffy general manager Nick Sasto had a moment with music industry power couple Orly and Ziggy Marley.
Torres considered the new capacity of Joint Seafood and what this could mean for Verse and many other restaurants. Then, perhaps in an attempt to get a popular share in the verse, Torres praised Liao more.
“He is the greatest fishmonger of our generation,” said Torres. “Luckily, he’s not a gatekeeper.”
That’s what happened with Liao. He wants to change the way the world’s best restaurants think about fish, but he also happily sells to independent chefs and home chefs. He is looking at supermarket chains and wants to open hand-roll bars across the country. The 400-pound tuna is just the beginning of a new chapter for Joint Seafood.
