Maison Yaki

Greg Baxtrom’s follow-up to his hit restaurant Olmsted is a fast-casual mash-up for the ages – part izakaya-style neighborhood pub, part haute-French establishment, and part Japanese yakitori joint. The cocktails are all on tap and budget-priced (order the Sake Negroni or the Vesper Martini for maximum dizzying effect), which frees you up to spend your cash on Baxtrom’s antic Franco-Japanese fusion creations: escargot spiked with plenty of shiso along with the usual garlic, delicate brisket-and-beef-tongue “sandos” squeezed between wheels of toasted brioche, and a variety of artfully rendered yakitori skewers dressed with a veritable rainbow of grand sauces lifted from the old French canon. (Try the rib eye with Bordelaise and the lobster with sauce américaine for starters.)