Yaku: Stylishly Laid-Back, Inside and Out

By Fritz Hahn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 31, 2009

The buzz: Before I even had a drink at Yaku, I was pretty certain I was going to like the place.

Its wide concrete patio is set back from Clarendon Boulevard. Trees and flowers are interspersed with umbrella-shaded tables and chairs. It sounds basic but is decidedly stylish: Even at happy hour, there are women in black dresses, designer sunglasses and coral-studded sandals lounging around tables, cocktails in hand. The men wear a mix of suits and expensively disheveled jeans-and-flip-flops combos.

Inside, it seems like the airiest restaurant-meets-bar in Arlington, thanks to two-story walls constructed mostly of glass, bathing the brightly colored interior in light during the day and showing the lights of Rosslyn after dark. Sleek lights hang from the ceiling, and pop-art portraits of indigenous Ecuadorians line the walls behind the bar.

The happy hour is the reason I was stopping by (it runs weekdays from 5 to 7:30 p.m.), and it doesn't disappoint. Draft beers such as Kirin Ichiban and Dos Equis are $2, and sangria is $3. Most mixed drinks are $4; mojitos and other house cocktails go for $6.

The kitchen is turning out what they call "Chinese-Peruvian dim sum," which translates to small plates of shrimp croquettes, a cold shrimp-and-crab-stuffed spring roll with sweet chili sauce, and a variety of pork and vegetable won tons. The won tons and gyoza are $3 for four pieces during happy hour.

Yaku is the most recent creation of Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, the man behind Chi-Cha, Gazuza and other Washington lounges. Looks like he has another winner on his hands.

The scene: Yaku's happy hours are lively, but this isn't one of Fraga-Rosenfeld's couch-strewn nightspots. Even on a weekend, Yaku feels like a restaurant, with the vast majority of the room given over to well-spaced tables. The bar area is only a few paces wide. There's nowhere to dance, so the music isn't too loud. Instead, people just relax around tables, sipping drinks and listening to the soundtrack.

The biggest surprise was finding that the upbeat electronic music came not from some staffer's iPod but from DJ Freddy Williams (known as Double o7), who has spun deep house at clubs, lounges and hotel rooftop pool parties in the past decade. Williams was tucked behind turntables in a corner, setting a reliable vibe of funky, adult rhythms that you could certainly dance to but that also work well as background music. He spins at Yaku's happy hour Wednesday through Friday, then again late on Fridays.

Despite all that (or maybe, for some, because of it), it's almost more fun to hang out on the patio, where people are table-hopping and socializing. Either way, it looks like Arlington has a new laid-back happy-hour destination and nightspot for those tired of the pubs-and-cover-bands scene.

In your glass: As at most of Fraga-Rosenfeld's locations, the cocktail list has a heavy Caribbean and South American flavor: Think pisco sours and mojito variations. I'm partial to caipirinhas, the national drink of Brazil, made with distilled sugar-cane liqueur, sugar and lime. It's refreshingly sweet on a hot day -- as is the caipiroska, a variation with vodka.

The draft beer list, including Miller Lite and Blue Moon, is disappointing, but fine when you need a cold drink at happy hour.

On one wall is one of those Enomatic machines, which you've probably seen at fancy wine spots such as Proof. It serves wine by the glass with the push of a button, then uses inert gases to keep the rest of the bottle from spoiling. Here, it works more like a wine vending machine: The 24 selections, predominantly South American and Spanish, sell for about $1.50 an ounce. You buy a prepaid card from the bartender for, say, $5, put it in the machine, and start sampling. The card tracks your balance, and you can re-up whenever you want.

It's a gimmick, but it's fun -- and it means that if you're considering ordering a pinot noir, you don't have to pick one blindly from the list. You can taste two or three, then get a full pour of whichever you like best.

Nice to know: Need to recover from a tough Saturday night? Yaku's brunch may just be the solution: $15 for unlimited mimosas from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. when you order an entree.

Need to know: Though it's on the ground floor of a towering condo building and along one of Arlington's busiest roads, the area around Yaku feels empty, almost as if it's in a suburban strip mall. (It sits across from the large vacant lot that once housed the Dr. Dremo's bar.) Parking is easy to find, and it's a little more than two blocks from the Court House Metro.

Price points: Outside of happy hour, you'll pay $5 for draft beers and $10 for most cocktails. There's never a cover charge.

What people are saying: Helen Krause, Sarah Vikner and Laura Orme, all living in Arlington, were full of praise for Yaku as they sat outside at a table after work, enjoying the warm evening air. "We walked by and we were drawn in [by the patio]," said Orme, 27.

"A lot of places have patios, but they're so tight," added Krause, 28. "Here you're not smushed up against someone."

And, of course, it helps that the trio was enjoying a carafe of the restaurant's white sangria as well as the extra hours of sun. "They make great sangria," Orme said. "They really should be known for this."

Tom Sietsema wrote about Yaku for his First Bite column on Sunday, November 23, 2008.

The eighth restaurant from the Washington-based Latin Concepts was due eight months ago, but it didn't start serving customers until Oct. 13.

Why the delay?

"Permits, like always," says owner Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld.

Still, the wait for Yaku was worth it. Like all of the busy restaurateur's interiors, including Mate in Georgetown and Ceviche in Glover Park, this one is easy on the eyes. Slender glass lights resembling shooting stars drop from on high. Italian-designed sofas arranged in front of the two-story glass front give Yaku the air of a trendy hotel lobby. Tables are spaced for comfort, and the walls suggest an art gallery, distinguished as they are by Warholesque oil paintings of Indians living in Ecuador ("These are my grandfathers and grand-uncles," Fraga-Rosenfeld, a native of that country, likes to joke.)

Yaku gets its name from an Incan word for water, but the kitchen looks beyond Latin America for inspiration. Although some dishes whisk diners to Peru -- shredded chicken and potato slices draped in a yellow curtain of cheese sauce; stewed beef moistened with cilantro sauce -- the menu's nubby shrimp ball appetizers and wiry sauteed noodles tossed with red peppers and bites of pork are more Asian in flavor. Their maker: Gisela Laos Mejia, who met her boss a year and a half ago while he was traveling in Peru and she was teaching cooking at the prestigious Cenfotur Institute.

Not every plate is a success -- mahi-mahi tempura is stiff as starch, the nuggets of fish bested by their tangy onion garnish -- but there's enough on the menu to help fill the restaurant's 135 seats.

We lucked out and ordered during happy hour, which runs from 5 to 7:30 p.m. weekdays, during which time the beer is $3, the wine is $5 and a respectable margarita can be had for $6. Some of the food is discounted then, too; be sure to check out Yaku's two-for-one dim sum selections.

Psst: If you head for the published address, which is in the Courthouse area, you'll end up in the circular drive of a condominium. Yaku's entrance is actually at Clarendon Boulevard and North Scott Street.

Entrees, $13-$17.