June 25, 2024 – Sometimes what might seem surprising is anything but.
So it goes with West End Tap’s recent transformation into Izakaya West End.
Project partners Quinn Cormier and Geoff Hargrave, who met as undergrads at University of Colorado at Boulder and launched West End over a decade back (and Capitola’s East End Gastropub two years later), have long loved Japanese cuisine.
Cormier is of Japanese heritage and grew up enthralled with her mom’s home cooking. Hargrave originally trained in Japanese techniques and worked as a chef at popular Lake Tahoe sushi bar-restaurant Mama Sake, and other Asian fusion joints.
“Geoff had a lot of dishes he created at Mama Sake,” Cormier says, “and I grew up familiar with all the ingredients my mom liked using.”
As the two considered how a rebrand might reignite interest dulled by COVID, and ways to leverage recent remodeling of the bar and patio, they debated what the Westside could use.
Cormier quietly assembled a mock menu, which did involve a soft shock.
“It was kinda a surprise—in a good way—since it wasn’t the ideas we had discussed,” Cormier says. “Geoff ran with it, and created what I think is an amazing menu.”
A look at the seasonal dinner rundown that soft-debuted over the weekend proves promising. It also comes elevated by the fact Hargrave and his team are making every sauce in house, like their shio coji, which works as an umami booster for soups, fish cures and deglazing pan sauces.
Raw plays ($18-$26) range from oysters, with optional house rice vinegar, minced green apple, black pepper and akashiso, to hamachi with fresh mandarin orange, cilantro, ponzu, sesame oil and yuzu kosho.
Starters ($5-$18) include miso bone broth, tempura inari and gochujang calamari.
Four salads ($12-$14) swing from Asian chopped and Eastern Nicoise to summer snap pea and chilled soba.
Mains number four too, with a Wagyu double smash burger ($16), karaage fried chicken ($28) and fermented black garlic king salmon ($32) among them.
The lunch lineup drops some bigger plates (like the 12-ounce prime ribeye) and adds a couple of others, including shrimp toast.
“Philosophically I have this idea of Japanese food—perfect ingredients in perfect ratios—and I fit that into the parameters of West End’s existence, which gives it a California element,” Hargrave says. “Simple but respectful.”
The identity of West End as a gastropub abides, finding fresher expression along the way.
“It felt like a natural next step: a Japanese gastropub, a casual place to have cocktails and good food,” Cormier says.
Attentive readers may experience a different sort of surprise with a word she snuck in there.
Yes, she said cocktails, as a liquor license takes effect in two weeks or so, with the overhauled bar area providing a suitable stage, complemented by the remade outdoor area.
Hargrave acknowledges changing a community favorite can be tricky business.
“It is risky, but the biggest risk is staying the same,” he says. “That’s why we did it. I mean that. That’s not just some fluff.”
He pauses, then adds this: “With Quinn’s heritage and my love of Japanese food, it seems like the right path.”
Izakaya West End | 334 Ingalls St. Santa Cruz | westendtap.com
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, EMB's managing editor and "Found Treasures" columnist, welcomes responsible and irresponsible feedback. Correspond via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
