Sushi, His Way

The phone rings twice before it’s snatched off the hook.

“Hello!” answers a gruff voice. “Who’s this?”

“Who’s this? Sushi Nozawa?” I ask hesitantly, not sure I have the right number.

“Yes!” the voice barks.

“What time does lunch . . .?”

“Twelve o’clock!”

“No, what time does lunch finish?”

“Two o’clock!”

“And if I can’t get there till 2:15 . . .?”

“No, no, no, no!” the sushi master shouts and hangs up.

At Sushi Nozawa, the cult sushi bar in Studio City, facing Nozawa-san’s famous grumpiness is a rite of passage for the studio executives and grunts who frequent the place. The first time I walked in, my guest and I headed straight for the two open places at the sushi bar, until Nozawa’s wife told us to wait while she finished with a couple of tables. She wanted to make sure we knew that if we sat at the bar, her husband, the sushi chef, would choose what we ate.

Another time, while friends and I waited in line outside, we overheard the couple in front of us unnerve their neighbor by telling him he’d get thrown out if he just walked in and took a seat at the sushi bar. My friend Antonia was staring longingly as the lucky diners inside scarfed down sushi and crab hand rolls with their Cokes. Now that’s a scary combination. “That sashimi looks wonderful,” she sighed. “After you’ve been standing out here for a half-hour,” her beau snapped, “anything would start to look good.”

When our table was ready, we made sure we didn’t sit down until we got the nod from Mrs. Nozawa. After that, the evening’s choices were simple: Japanese beer or a nondescript sake, the sushi menu or the same special Nozawa serves aficionados at the sushi bar. If you order from the menu, all you have to do is go down the list and check off toro, mirugai (clam), yellowtail or Spanish mackerel. The octopus, incidentally, is delicious, lightly brushed with a sweet soy glaze and scattered with sesame seeds.

The “special” doesn’t seem to vary much from visit to visit. Basically, Nozawa-san knows his customers (I didn’t see a Japanese face in the place) and is careful not to serve anything too unusual or still wriggling. First he might offer a plate of tuna sashimi doused in ponzu and strewn with sliced scallions. The yellowtail, a pale ivory blushed with rose, is as soft and plush as cashmere. And the toro is nicely marbled. Not that the waiter bothers to announce what each flight of sushi is. We have to ask twice to get a mumbled answer. One dish is albacore already splashed with ponzu. “No soy sauce,” the waiter commands when he sets the cheap plastic plate in front of you. The rice is warm, sticky and curiously pleasing beneath the cool fish.

I don’t care much for the hefty crab hand roll, a fat stripe of rice with sweet shredded crab down one side wrapped in nori. It’s so rich and heavy that it puts a crimp in your appetite for the rest of the meal. And the broiled unagi (eel) that sometimes ends the sequence of sushi is too sweet and mushy.

What sets this modest sushi bar apart are the quality and freshness of the fish. Yet it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. The sign behind the counter reads: “Today’s special: TRUST ME.” Is this place so popular simply because Nozawa-san won’t allow imperious yuppies to have their dynamite hand roll? Because he insists, unlike the always-amenable Nobu Matsuhisa, on customers eating sushi his way, that is, in the traditional fashion, without tricky sauces, without dousing it with so much wasabi that even the most astute palate can’t taste the fish he’s taken such pains to procure? It certainly couldn’t be the decor: a large backlit photo of a school of bluish fish framed in red neon, a wood-patterned Formica bar and just a handful of cramped tables.

Whatever it is, this hard-working chef who hardly ever cracks a smile doesn’t seem to have a personality naturally suited for what restaurateurs like to refer to as the “hospitality business.” If you want to eat sushi here, you just have to accept his rigorously stone-faced style.

There’s no question that Sushi Nozawa is excellent for what it is. My tip: You’ll eat better if you put yourself in Nozawa’s hands--no restrictions--and let him give you what he feels is best that day. Plus if you’re lucky, you’ll get one of those coveted places at the sushi bar. Just don’t ask for anything special.

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SUSHI NOZAWA

CUISINE: Japanese. AMBIENCE: Tiny, nondescript sushi restaurant in mini-mall. BEST DISHES: Sushi, special of the day. TO DRINK: Kirin or Sapporo beer. FACTS: 11288 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; (818) 508-7017. Lunch and dinner Monday through Friday. Sushi, $20 to $40 per person. Lot or street parking.