Sushi Meets Wine & Cheese

At Sushi Shibucho on Beverly Boulevard, a wall clock with pieces of plastic sushi for numbers ticks off the hours--midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., all the way to 3 a.m.--as chef-owner Shige Kudo serves a steady stream of musicians just finishing up at the recording studio, Japanese journalists in town to cover Hideo Nomo and chefs fresh off the line at their own restaurants. One moment, the bar is empty, then suddenly all 10 seats are taken and the next group through the door has to settle for one of the handful of tables.

Sushi Shibucho began 21 years ago as an offshoot of the downtown L.A. restaurant Shibucho. Kudo worked for the owner and later bought this place, now stranded in a down-at-heels neighborhood since the Japanese enclave that once lived here has moved away. The simple wood-lined restaurant could pass for thousands in Tokyo or Osaka, with its sparkling-fresh seafood lined up behind glass at the bar. Framed prints of warriors and maidens, along with a couple of brushwork posters, decorate the walls. Not so typical is the shelf holding a collection of Italian wines (Tignanello, Barolo, Montepulciano, even a Cannonau from Sardinia) along with some Bordeaux and a Penafiel from the Ribera del Duero region of Spain. The chef also keeps a short list of older vintages of Bordeaux in reserve for his Japanese clientele. White wines I can fathom, but reds?

As Kudo sets down a plate of sashimi--plush purple-red albacore, charred at the edges and cooked maybe an eighth of an inch in--I have to ask about the wines. It turns out he is crazy about wine, especially older bottles from Bordeaux or Burgundy or Italy. He combs auction catalogs for case lots he might pick up at a bargain (harder and harder to do these days) and faxes or phones in his bids. Anything younger than the ‘60s seems like a baby to him. “I like older wines at their peak, when they still have fruit and a beautiful bouquet,” he says. “A wine like that can go with anything. Anything. It doesn’t matter.”

He’s making sushi now, forming the faintly sweet rice into ovals and draping them with well-marbled toro. Next, he presents a pale, rose-streaked nigiri-zushi of halibut. “No soy sauce,” he cautions, noting that he’s already seasoned the fish with a squeeze of yuzu and salt. It’s delicious. And while I still wonder about Bordeaux and sushi, which sounds like an odd combination, he insists that the only thing to be wary of is too much wasabi or soy sauce.

When I look up from my sushi of yellowtail, Kudo is swirling a glass of red wine and instructing his waiter to serve the three of us still at the bar a glass of 1957 Chteau Bellevue St. Emilion. Poured from the crystal decanter his employees gave him for his birthday, it’s in perfect condition. And it does go with the sushi . . . and a hand roll of toro crunchy with a sprinkling of fish roe. Kudo rests his case.

Quite often, Kudo will offer filet of butterfish that’s been marinated overnight in sake and then broiled in a very hot oven, a little blistered on top, its flesh oily and richly flavored. Sometimes he serves velvety tender squid rings that are baked and mixed with extra-virgin olive oil and red chile pepper. Or sardine, yellow diced pickled daikon and shiso leaf rolled up in nori and sliced.

One night when my appetite begins to flag, Kudo makes me a light salad with good Italian olive oil and a live prawn, split and broiled with its cache of bright red roe. I’m finished, I say. But by then, he’s already prepared a plate of raisin bread with a wedge of creamy ivory cheese marbled with blue. Cheese? And French cheese at that, I discover, reading a slip of paper he’s passed over with the words “Saint Augur” written on it. Now this has got to be a first in a sushi restaurant--probably the only one on the planet that serves French cheese until 3 in the morning!

SUSHI SHIBUCHO

CUISINE: Japanese. AMBIENCE: Small wood-lined sushi bar that feels like Tokyo and is open from 5:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. BEST DISHES: sashimi, seared albacore, marinated broiled butterfish, toro hand roll, French cheeses. WINE PICKS: older Bordeaux. FACTS: 3114 W. Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 387-8498. Closed Sunday and at lunch. Meal for two, food only, $70 to $90. Parking on street.