Sakuramen owner Jonathan Cho isn't just expanding upstairs: he's also moving down the street. Cho signed a lease on the long-vacant Cafe Lautrec/Cafe Toulouse building at 2431 18th St. NW, where he will open a new pan-Asian restaurant concept.
Those things include "Asian comfort foods that people would have grown up," said Cho, who will also take inspiration from Japanese izakayas, Korean barbeque and Korean odeng, a type of fish cake in broth.
As for the bar: "It’s not going to be a typical bar," Cho said. "I don’t think we’re going to have any Western alcohol whatsoever."
Cho is still deciding on the restaurant's name. As for the iconic reproduction of the Toulouse-Lautrec portrait of Aristide Bruant on the building's exterior, Cho said it's not going anywhere. "We would love to change it, but the property owner and the city's historic preservation folks seem to really like it and won't allow us to paint over it."
Construction will begin soon, and he hopes to open before the holiday season. The Sakuramen expansion, however, will take longer: There are permitting issues to work out, as well as the construction of a staircase between the subterranean restaurant and the new floor. The extra space, which will add 25 seats to the restaurant, will open by March.