Roppongi is back.
When it opened in 1998, Roppongi was kind of it. The thing. A pan-Asian upscale, modern spot where a lot of the city’s top sushi chefs (including Wrench & Rodent’s Davin Waite) learned the art of it.
The La Jolla icon closed its doors in 2015 due to rising rent costs. Rent hasn’t gotten any cheaper, but restaurateur Sami Ladeki is patient. Plus, he’s hardly been idle—he’s been running a restaurant empire since 1989, when he opened Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza in La Jolla. Ladeki—a first-gen American who was drafted days after getting his visa and worked his way up from army mess halls to Caesar’s Palace and finally to San Diego—was one of the first if not the first to put a woodfired oven in a San Diego restaurant. As a result, Sammy’s took off like a rocketship. (Interesting tidbit: when thinking about the concept, he called the guy who made the ovens about how to do it, and that guy connected him with… Ed Ladou, the famed chef who is co-credited with starting the California-style pizza movement at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, Spago).
At one point, there were nearly two dozen Sammy’s locations across California and Nevada (there are currently eight). He’s also got four locations of his Toasted Gastrobrunch morning cafe concepts. But Roppongi Restaurant & Lounge was his shining star, the ambitious project inspired by his travels to Roppongi, Japan.
“People kept asking me, ‘When are you going to reopen?’” he says.
Helming Roppongi 2.0 is Alfie Szeprethy, who started as Roppongi’s executive chef before becoming the executive chef for the entire Ladeki Restaurant Group. All the old favorites are returning—notably, the crab stack, a signature dish from day one. Ahi poke, hamachi tacos, sushi rolls. They’ve added a bunch of new items to keep things fresh—lots of woks; handmade dumplings stuffed with lobster, duck confit, and short rib; new fried rice and noodle dishes; and of course, plenty of Asian spirits, sake, wine, and cocktails.
Interior designer Stephanie Parisi has given the space a Kris Jenner-level facelift: technically the same face, but so jaw-dropping that it’s hard to believe. The entire space is meant to feel like a work of art—sculptural, organic, and extremely chic. Curved walls to evoke movement under arched ceilings, with oval tables and custom furniture that keep hard edges to a minimum. Roppongi’s original fireplace still serves as a centerpiece, now framed with Buddha statues and accentuated with ceiling sculptures by Milan-based artist Mirei Monticello, as well as works by other local and international artists.
It’s giving Princess Diana’s revenge dress—she may have been gone for a while, but she’s back and looking better than ever.
Roppongi will reopen at 875 Prospect Street in La Jolla on Thursday, December 4. Daily hours are dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. (the bar and lounge will stay open until midnight), and happy hour on the patio from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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