Christopher Durbin
If you were wondering, Gabe Sanchez and Black Swan are officially supporting Team Japan during the World Cup. Not theoretically or just as a fan, but by making the bar home base for Japan’s fans. Sanchez is lining up a series of game-day Japanese-influenced pop-ups, with a little help from his friends.
The idea came to him halfway through Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, ironically. He was looking at a photo of his family that a cousin texted him — the group shot has his grandmother, Margarita Kumiyama Sanchez, with seven of her nine children, including his father, and his great-grandmother. They’d all gone from Guam to California “on a boat,” as Sanchez describes it, in 1959, but decades earlier, they’d all immigrated from Japan to Guam.
“I’ve never done anything professionally in [my grandmother’s] honor,” Sanchez says. “It just clicked — I’m going to do a [Japanese] menu and change the interiors a little bit. I can’t exactly do it like her house because there are no banana trees or machetes.” And he decided to call it Kumiyama, which is her maiden name and maybe the name of the village outside Kyoto her family hailed from — Sanchez is still working his way through the family tree, and says details from before the turn of the 20th century are scarce.
Versus the Netherlands, June 14
Sanchez has put together a series of events focused on Japanese food and drinks. It starts on Sunday, June 14, when Japan plays the Netherlands. Jimmy Niwa of the now-closed Niwa Barbecue will make a comeback to host a yakitori, where he’ll serve Spam musubi, Wagyu deviled eggs, four different skewers and cucumber salad.
Versus Tunisia, June 20
George Kaiho, who has been behind the bar at Jettison and Le PasSage, and is now at Tei-An, will bring his Koyomi cocktail pop-up on Saturday, June 20, when Japan plays Tunisia. Josh Harmon will join him, serving Japanese convenience-store food, including egg salad, a chicken katsu sandwich, fish balls, and more.
“You don’t necessarily need to be of a culture to understand and appreciate it,” Sanchez says. “My grandma thought it was funny when people said things like, ‘You’re not from that culture, you can’t do it.’ She would be impressed with the kind of care Josh takes with food.”
The Flight Club wine night, usually hosted at its sister bar, Saint Valentine, will move to Black Swan for the month and feature Hachidori Sake with an appearance by its sake master, Stuart Morris. That event will be on Wednesday, June 24, and is ticketed — but it only costs $35.98.
Vesus Sweeden, June 25
When Japan plays Sweden on Thursday, June 25, Daijoubu will take over Saint Valentine. Its bartenders, Sharon Yeung and Caer Maiko, have won a list of awards to rival Sanchez’s own, and wherever they go, it’s a party. “Watching them do the physical part of making cocktails is fun; they’re super gifted,” Sanchez says. “I’m going to be bar backing that night and hopefully not breaking a bunch of shit.”
We’ll let you know if Gabe adds more events as Japan, which Sports Illustrated calls “the most exciting team in the World Cup,” makes it through these rounds. He may just have to.
Courtney E. Smith
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