Taiwanese tasting menu restaurant Kato is relocating from West Los Angeles to Row DTLA, located at 777 Alameda St.
The newly located restaurant will fill in for San Francisco chef Melissa Perello’s M.Georgina, which struggled to succeed through the pandemic. Kato’s original location at 11925 Santa Monica Blvd will host customers one more time on Nov. 20 before taking a few months off for the holidays. The Kato team, which includes owner Jon Yao and partners Nikki Reginaldo and Ryan Bailey, hope to open the DTLA Kato in January or February 2022, according to Eater LA. Perello announced the departure last night via Instagram.
“It’s difficult to walk away from a restaurant that was open for only four months. However, we do not see a viable path forward for M.Georgina post-COVID,” Perello said in a statement. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to pass the torch of this beautiful restaurant to the very capable hands of Jon Yao, Ryan Bailey, Nikki Reginaldo, and the Kato team.”
The new location will be much larger and more upscale than the original location, but will host about the same amount of people to ensure a more theatrical experience. This has been a longtime goal for Yao, who started Kato in a hidden strip mall back in 2016 as a Japanese tasting restaurant. Five years later, the acclaimed business owner has earned a Michelin star plus several high-praises from local publications. On top of their success story, the trio has created a new parent company called Like Water Hospitality.
With this accomplishment, Yao has some big plans for the new group. He hopes to further set his restaurant apart from the rest by turning the restaurant into “one of the country’s top fine-dining institutions, one that garners attention from the World’s 50 Best and earns two or even three Michelin stars.”
The new restaurant will come with some new features, such as a wood-fired hearth and a separate area for pastry. Something completely different from the original location is that the new Kato will feature a full cocktail bar and wine menu complimenting Kato’s food. The restaurant will continue to host its Taiwanese tasting menu based on Yao’s Taiwanese and San Gabriel Valley roots.
When the restaurant first started, these tasting sessions cost $50 per person. When the pandemic hit, Kato was forced to increase the price by $100. It’s unknown how much the Taiwanese tasting menu will cost at the new location, but we can expect to see a lot more production and success from the Kato team in the future.
“We wanted to be closer to SGV, where a lot of our friends and family were coming from. Right now, 30 to 40 percent of people come from SGV driving two or three hours,” Reginaldo told Eater LA. “A lot of people that come here are young Asian Americans who are thankful for the representation, saying it’s a nostalgic experience, that the food reminds them of home. We end up having conversations, then we start texting. We get lunch, we get boba. We have that sort of intimacy that I personally really like,”
