Back in 2005, when we didn't know any better, we used to finish the
Supermarket Street Sweep at a bar on 16th Street. We used to have the food bank bring donation barrels to the bar that wouldn't come close to handling the amount of food we were bringing in. Even back then, at half the size of the race today, we were still breaking our backs (and butts) to bring in as much food as we could.
Across the street, a Mexican chef was hard at work honing the age-old craft of making sushi. At its height, Tokyo Go-Go was the place to spend your Web 1.0 dollars, and Tim Archuleta was there to feed you. But soon after we started, Tim would leave Tokyo Go-Go to to start a small catering business in Bernal Heights.
By 2011, The Lucky Cat Deli, would grow into Tim's first sushi bar, ICHI. Sustainability and a seasonal focus, along with Tim's modern and vibrant take on some of the world's oldest cuisine made ICHI an immediate neighborhood favorite. The old sushi bar on Godeus is now home to Tim's oyster bar, ICHI Kakiya, and the new, bigger ICHI + NI Bar further down the street is now a busy hub for those looking to eat some of the best fish that graces SF's shores.
I stopped in to have a bite to eat and was lucky enough to get a spot at the bar with ICHI's chef de cuisine Erik Aplin. Erik is not just a skilled master of the craft, but when you're at the bar, he's also just great fun to watch and talk to. His wildly creative taste for everything is not just beautiful but tasty. With their seasonal focus this means you can go to ICHI over and over and always be surprised with what they're serving up. On this night it was a local anchovy, fried to perfection, eaten whole. It was, among the stable of other delights, a seasonal treat that I could have eaten a few dozen of.
This is perhaps all just a long, tasty way of saying that the generous folks over at ICHI have given this year's SMSW10 WINNERS $200 worth of gift certificates to ICHI + NI Bar and $100 to ICHI Kakiya. Thank you Tim and Erin Archuleta!
